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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2019)
Page 6 The Skanner Portland & Seattle June 5, 2019 CAREERS $10.7 Billion: More Biotech Firms, More Life Research, More Jobs and Higher Industry Wages in Oregon Make an Increasingly Larger Economic Impact in Oregon Oregon Bioscience Association via Business Wire O regon’s biotechnol- ogy and life science sector continues its growth and gains in economic output and activity. Statewide data show Oregon is home to 19,157 bioscience jobs with $1.5 billion paid in direct wages in 2017. Annual wages in corpo- rate bioscience averaged $70,451 and in life sci- ence research averaged $92,840 in 2017. These two sectors far exceed Oregon’s overall private annual wage by 40 per- cent and 46 percent, re- spectively. The newest study un- derscores how Oregon’s bioscience and health research sectors provide high-paying, skilled jobs, while showing increased exports, as well as sub- stantial contributions to the economy via taxes and overall economic ac- tivity. The total economic impacts include the di- rect impacts of the bio- science industry plus “ science Industry in 2017 (and Trends Since 2002), shows growth trends over the past 15 years with total bioscience employment increas- ing 76 percent (adding The increased diversity shows larger numbers of women and minorities work in our sector additional supply-chain and consumption-driven impacts. In 2017, the total impacts in Oregon con- sist of: $10.7 billion in output, including $3.4 billion in income, and 47,238 jobs$401.9 million in tax and fee revenues for state and local jurisdic- tions$789.6 million in tax and fee revenues for the federal government.The report, Economic Impact Study 2019: Profiling the Growth of Oregon’s Bio- 6,700 jobs) and payrolls increasing 182 percent ($767 million). The new economic impact study examines corporate/pri- vate bioscience along- side life science research and was independently researched and prepared by Pinnacle Economics. “It is compelling to note that Oregon’s biotech and health research sec- tors reside in all sizes of companies from start up to scale up to medium See BIOTECH on page 7 Oregon Businesses Report Challenges Filling Majority of Job Vacancies Low application rates, unfavorable working conditions make vacancies difficult to fill Oregon Employment Department O regon’s private employers re- ported 58,000 job vacancies at any given time in 2018. The majority (33,000 or 57%) of those job open- ings were identified by businesses as difficult to fill. The Oregon Em- ployment Department has published detailed findings about these job vacancies in the new re- port “Oregon’s Current Workforce Gaps: Hiring Challenges for Unfilled Job Vacancies.” In a long economic expansion with unem- ployment rates at or near record lows in Or- egon for two years, a lack of applicants posed the greatest challenge to employers. In 2018, nearly one-third (29%) of all difficult-to-fill job vacancies had too few applicants, or none at all. The second most-common reason businesses cited for dif- ficulty filling vacancies was unfavorable work- ing conditions. These included challenges finding workers for part-time, on-call, over- night, or inconsistent work shifts. Employers faced chal- lenges filling job vacan- cies across a variety of jobs. Occupations with the largest number of difficult-to-fill job va- cancies included per- sonal care aides (2,000), truck drivers (1,700), food preparation work- ers (800), roofers (700), restaurant cooks (700), and landscaping and groundskeeping work- ers (600). Although difficult-to-fill vacancy totals were smaller, em- ployers reported chal- lenges filling essential- ly all job vacancies for forest and conservation workers, plumbers, con- struction supervisors, printing press opera- tors, and intercity and transit bus drivers. By industry, health care and social assis- tance reported the largest number of diffi- cult-to-fill job vacancies (5,500). Construction had the second-largest number of challenging job vacancies (4,800), which also represented the highest share (85%) of hard-to-fill vacancies by sector. Construction grew the fastest of any industry in Oregon be- tween early 2016 and 2018. Along with that outsized pace of job growth came a larg- er share (41%) of diffi- cult-to-fill vacancies in the sector with a lack of applicants. Employers across Oregon shared in the challenge of meeting their current workforce needs. Businesses re- ported difficulty filling the majority of job va- cancies in every region of the state. The Port- land Metro area (Mult- nomah and Washington counties) reported the largest number of dif- ficult-to-fill vacancies (12,700) in 2018. Mean- while, the largest shares of difficult-to-fill vacan- cies were found in the East Cascades (73%) and Southwestern Oregon (68%) regions. For the full report and more details on recent Oregon job vacancies, visit the “publications” tab on QualityInfo.org.