Find a Job You Really Want In
We’re on a mission at Zippia to criss-cross the country looking for the best and worst places for jobs.
Today, we set our sites on the worst cities to find a job in Oregon after looking at the best places in Oregon a short while ago.
These cities did not have the grit needed to make it to the big leagues and get that big promotion we all hope to get.
After looking at the data for the 78 biggest cities in Oregon, the ten worst cities to find a job in Oregon are:
- Roseburg North
- Winston
- Klamath Falls
- Brookings
- Roseburg
- Green
- Ontario
- Baker City
- Talent
- Sutherlin
Read on to see how we did it.
For more OR reading, check out:
How We Determined The Worst Places For Jobs In The Beaver State
After getting the data for all 1,500 places in Oregon, we ultimately decided to limit our analysis to any place with over 5,000 people that isn’t a township.
That left us with 78 cities.
We then ranked each place across a number of criteria from one to 78, with 1 being the worst in any given category.
Finally, we took the average rank across all criteria, with the place posting the lowest overall score gaining the title “Worst City In Oregon To Find A Job”.
The criteria we looked at were:
Population: 6,493
Unemployment Rate: 9.90%
Median Household Income: $30,951
Roseburg North takes the title of the worst of the worst for jobs in Oregon.
Scoring poorly across the board was the recipe for failure on the job front, but the town of just over 6,000 people performed particularly poorly on the unemployment rate front — it ranked as the third worst in the state.
2. Winston
Population: 5,352
Unemployment Rate: 9.90%
Median Household Income: $31,627
Winston is the smallest place on our list, but that’s not an excuse for finishing as the second worst place in Oregon to get a job.
Its statistics mirrored Roseburg North except for one category — median household income. Winston just barely edged out Roseburg North by under $1,000, so it’s not like people in Winston are rolling in the dough.
3. Klamath Falls
Population: 20,943
Unemployment Rate: 9.80%
Median Household Income: $31,971
Klamath falls ranks as the third worst place for jobs in Oregon.
While Klamath Falls’ unemployment rate is slightly better the first two guys on the list, it underperformed on future job prospects (2nd worst in the state).
4. Brookings
Population: 6,315
Unemployment Rate: 10.90%
Median Household Income: $39,830
Brookings takes the fourth spot on the list of worst places for jobs in Oregon.
And while Brookings ranks fourth, I could definitely make the case that it should be the worst — it ranks as having the worst unemployment rate, recent job growth, and future job growth in the state.
Why didn’t it end up as the worst? Its median household income only ranks as the 24th worst in the state.
5. Roseburg
Population: 21,542
Unemployment Rate: 9.90%
Median Household Income: $39,621
Roseburg takes the fifth position, four spots south of Roseburg North.
Roseburg has the same base statistics as Roseburg North, but has a household median income some 30% higher. I guess this stills the whole which Roseburg is better debate, at least on the job front side.
6. Green
Population: 8,008
Unemployment Rate: 9.90%
Median Household Income: $39,688
Green comes in as the sixth worst place for jobs in Oregon and rounds out the quad cities — it too has the same base statistics as three of the first five places on the list.
And Green was just able to edge out Roseburg on the median household income front.
7. Ontario
Population: 11,273
Unemployment Rate: 8.30%
Median Household Income: $30,545
Ontario comes in as the seventh worst place for jobs in Oregon.
It ushers in a substantially different route to the top ten worst. While it is below average across the board, its unemployment rate is substantially better than the other places that come before it on this list.
However, the median household income ranks as the third lowest in the Beaver State. And while jobs are great, high paying jobs are even better.
8. Baker City
Population: 9,790
Unemployment Rate: 8.40%
Median Household Income: $34,900
Taking the eighth spot on our list is Baker City.
While it might the county seat of Baker County, Baker City does have a seat at the jobs table relatively to the other places in the state.
The city’s lack luster recent job growth (2nd worst in the state) directly lead to its overall placement.
9. Talent
Population: 6,086
Unemployment Rate: 8.90%
Median Household Income: $32,961
Talent apparently has trouble attracting top level job talent as it places ninth on the list of the worst places in Oregon to get a job.
High unemployment rates mixed with low median household incomes mean that the brass of the organization don’t call talent home.
10. Sutherlin
Population: 7,761
Unemployment Rate: 9.90%
Median Household Income: $42,769
And closing out the worst places in Oregon to get a job is Sutherlin.
Sutherlin has some of the worst recent job growth and prospects for future job growth of any city in the top ten. However, it makes up for it with the quality of the jobs that it does have — its median household income is the highest of any place in the top ten.
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
