Job-Posting Report Shows Impact of Data Center Construction
By Oregon Business and Industry,
Quarterly report: On July 17, OBI released the Oregon Jobs Report covering the second quarter of 2026. The report, which reflects state job postings from April to June, is produced by Colorado-based Aspen Tech Labs, which maintains a database of more than 10 million active job postings worldwide from over 350,000 employers. Key findings:
- Year-over-year job postings in Oregon declined slightly, dropping 0.5% from June 2025 to June 2026. National numbers remain stronger, with job postings increasing by 3.7% year over year.
- Oregon job postings in the second quarter increased by 5.3% over the first quarter of 2026. Nationally, job postings increased by 1% over the same period.
- Oregon’s hiring market during the second quarter of 2026 was shaped by concentration rather than broad expansion. Thanks to Amazon’s data center buildout, for example,
- Hermiston-Pendleton has become one of the state’s fastest-growing hiring markets. In fact, the combined IT postings in Boardman and Hermiston exceeded those in the Portland area.
Notable quote: “Taken together, Q2 2026 points to a job market increasingly shaped by anchor employers and infrastructure investment. Where those investments land, hiring follows. Where they don’t, the underlying softness in professional and healthcare roles continues to quietly accumulate.”
Learn more: Go here to read the full report.
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