The Oregonian on May 15, 2013
By Molly Young
A new study from a DC-based think tank takes the pulse of Oregon’s young workforce. No news flash here– it’s still weak.
Unemployment among young adults in Oregon is more than double the state average. More are working part-time than before the recession. And fewer have any job at all.
Researchers at Young Invincibles, which advocates for youth issues, crunched federal labor data and released the Oregon facts as part of a state-by-state jobs campaign. “The challenges facing Oregon’s youth could depress economic opportunity for all Oregonians for years to come,” it concludes.
The Oregonian explored that threat and the struggles young adults face today in “Diminished expectations,” a series published last fall.
Here’s what the new survey has to say:
- Oregon workers ages 16 to 24 face a 17.8 percent unemployment rate. (A separate survey recently showed underemployment among those workers was twice as high.)
- Of young adults with jobs, 55 percent worked full-time in 2011, down from 66 percent in 2005. The share of 16- to 24-year-olds working part-time climbed from 34 percent to 45 percent over the same time frame.
- The share employed at all has slid from 66 percent in 2005 to 53 percent in 2011.
- Median income among slightly older workers, those between 25- and 34-years-old, fell from about $33,000 in 2007 to $30,000 in 2011.
–Molly Young