Oregonians just clocked their shortest average workweek in more than a decade, and it is not because everyone suddenly got generous vacation packages. In December, the typical private-sector workweek in Oregon slipped below 33 hours, a sign that the labor market still has slack even as some headline growth numbers look a little rosier. Economists warn that when hours get trimmed, household paychecks can lag behind, even if state GDP looks fine on paper.
What the numbers show
Federal data put Oregon's average private-sector workweek at roughly 32.9 hours in December 2025, under the 33-hour line that economists watch. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon's average weekly earnings that month were about $1,264.68, a figure shaped more by shorter schedules than by a big jump in hourly pay.
State economists call it a warning sign
State forecasters are not brushing this off. Oregon's 12-month moving average of weekly hours fell to 33.46 in December, the lowest reading since mid-2010, and the drop "warrants close attention," the Office of Economic Analysis said in its March forecast. The report notes that hiring has been muted even as output picked up and that "firmer growth is likely to be sustained and will ultimately boost labor conditions," if it holds.
Layoffs and uneven hiring are part of the picture
Recent layoff waves are part of what is tugging on those averages. Journalism and official records point to heavy layoff activity in 2024 and 2025 that thinned payrolls in some sectors. As reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive, the state has seen a string of mass layoffs over the past two years, and federal data show Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 5.2% in December, a level surpassed by only a couple of states that month. Elevated WARN notices and employer filings suggest the weakness is spread across industries rather than concentrated in one easy-to-blame corner of the economy.
Policy and payrolls
Policy shifts are nudging hours around too. A payroll analysis by researchers at Oregon State University found that the state's phased-in farm-overtime law raised hourly pay at some operations while reducing total weekly hours for affected workers, a combination that can pull down the statewide average workweek even as hourly wages tick upward. Those localized changes, stacked on top of layoffs at larger employers, help explain how total hours worked can slide even when some measures of output are moving the right way.
What to watch next
Economists will be watching closely to see whether employers restore hours if growth firms up, since longer schedules would help household paychecks catch up with the broader economy. The state's Office of Economic Analysis said it will revisit these trends in its next quarterly update on May 20 and urged close attention to hiring flows, WARN filings and payroll data to gauge whether the pullback in hours is a temporary wobble or something more structural.
