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Oregon Workers Struggle as Full-Time Jobs Become Harder to Find Top Stories By Diane Megaw On Oct 26, 2025 Last updated Oct 26, 2025 FILE - Oregon Employment Department Oregon’s U-6 rate, better known as the “underemployment” rate, has been steadily increasing toward 5% for over two years as part-timers are finding it more challenging to increase their hours, despite wanting to. Oregon Underemployment Rate Reaches 5% Oregon’s jobless rate has been increasing as manufacturing and tech layoffs push it to the highest level in the U.S. , and large employers like Wells Fargo are cutting jobs in Portland . Oregon’s Employment Department recently revealed that unemployment in Oregon now stands at 5%, up from 4.2% since last August. But the shrinking job market also affects people who have jobs but work fewer hours than they’d like. People with part-time jobs who would rather be working full time, and others who have recently given up looking for work, are classified as the U-6 rate, or “underemployment” rate, which started rising rapidly in the state last spring and is growing twice as quickly as the national increase. Oregon’s underemployment rate now stands at 5%, the state’s highest level of underemployment in four years. While Oregon’s U-6 rate topped 20% in 2009 and 2010, during the Great Recession, it returned to those levels again in 2020, in the pandemic’s early days, before falling to 6.6% in 2023. Share Twitter Facebook ReddIt WhatsApp Pinterest Email