Ashland Oregon Chamber of Commerce / Your Business / ASHLAND INDUSTRIES / Employment
Employment
Jackson County
Jackson County like the rest of the state and nation has experienced a downturn in the economy with job losses and unemployment. After losing a modest number of jobs in the year following the recession of 2001, the region experienced steady employment growth from 2004 through 2007. In 2008, the base year for our employment projections, the Rogue Valley lost jobs and continued to lose jobs into 2009. While the 2001 recession merely brushed by Southern Oregon, the most recent recession took aim at this part of Oregon, with large industries such as retail trade, construction, and manufacturing experiencing the largest job losses. The 10-year projections do not try to forecast the beginning or end of the current recession or possible future recessions. Rather, the projections aim for a long-term average employment level, somewhere between the cyclical highs and lows.
• The Rogue Valley is expected to add over 11,220 jobs between 2008 and 2018, an increase of 10 percent. Growth will be slower than job growth in the prior decade when the region added about 16,000 jobs and grew by 18 percent.
• Two broad industries are expected to account for nearly 50 percent of the region’s job growth: educational and health services, and trade, transportation, and utilities.
• Manufacturing will likely rebound over the forecast period but is not expected to return to its employment level prior to the recent recession. Wood products is forecast to lose jobs, declining by 4 percent by 2018. Wood products and transportation equipment manufacturing industries are all part of the larger manufacturing sector which experienced a number of permanent factory closures.
• Job growth is expected to be most rapid in the central and southern regions of the state.
Every two years, Oregon Employment Department economists take on this challenge and create 10-year industry employment forecasts. They examined historical trends and other people’s forecasts of the future to help project Oregon’s employment changes between 2008 and 2018.
Source: Oregon Employment Department
Employment in Ashland
Southern Oregon University (SOU) is the largest employer in Ashland with 775 employees including faculty representing a payroll of approximately $48 million. Enrollment at 5,670 students (winter term 2010) is the second largest in the school’s history. SOU provides a quality liberal arts education that supports student success in a wide range of majors, certificates, and pre-professional programs including, but not limited to, a Master in Management and Master in Business Administration degrees. Total revenue for the University in 2009 was in excess of $100 million.
Top 5 employers in Ashland:
Southern Oregon University: 775
Oregon Shakespeare Festival: 500
Ashland Community Hospital: 402
Ashland Public Schools: 300
City of Ashland: 264
Labor Market
The availability of labor is critical for the city’s economic development. Availability of labor depends not only on the number of workers available, but the quality, skills, and experience of available workers as well.
The labor force in any market consists of the adult population (16 and over) who are working or actively seeking work, and includes both employed and unemployed workers. Children, retirees, students, and people who are not actively seeking work are not counted as part of the labor force. According to the 2000 Census, 64% of the city’s population over 16 years (10,500) is in labor force. Ashland labor force accounts for over 12% of the 85,000 people in county’s labor force.
Skill and educational levels of the labor force are key concerns for businesses seeking to hire qualified workers. According to the 2000 Census, Ashland’s residents are highly-educated. The chart below illustrates the distribution of population over 25 years by education level completed and compares Ashland to Jackson County and Oregon. Ashland has a greater share of residents with an associate’s degree or higher (58%) than residents of Oregon (32%) or Jackson County (28%). The large share of residents with a bachelor’s degree and graduate or professional degree relates, in part, to the faculty and staff employed at Southern Oregon University. However, the city’s rich social, cultural, and natural amenities, including the University and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, also attract highly-skilled, highly-educated people who work in the region, telecommute to larger urban areas, or who are retired (City of Ashland: Economic Opportunities Analysis, April 2007, ECONorthwest).
One of the attractions of living in Ashland is the ease with which resident travel to work, whether by walking, biking, driving city roads, or by accessing Interstate 5. Residents of Ashland spend less time commuting to work than all residents of Jackson County or Oregon. Thirty-four percent of residents of Ashland commute 10 minutes or less, compared with 19% of Jackson County residents and 17% of residents of Oregon.
Part of the reason that residents’ commute time is relatively low is that the majority of working residents work in Ashland. The 2000 Census reports the share of residents who work in their cities of residence. In Ashland, 63% of its residents work where they live. Ashland’s percentage significantly exceeds the 48% share for Oregon and 42% for the United States. Ashland also has a larger share of residents who work at home (8%), compared with Jackson County (6%) and Oregon (5%).
Though many residents work in Ashland, commuting to work is still common. Nearly half of the people who live in Ashland commute outside the city for work. Less than half of people who work in Ashland also live in Ashland. The implication of this workforce analysis is that, while a substantial amount of Ashland’s workforce lives within the city, Ashland is able to attract workers from most of Jackson County and surrounding areas.
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