Oregon landed near the very bottom of a new nationwide ranking of the best and worst states for jobs, coming in as the second-worst state overall according to a WalletHub report released this week. The state's unemployment rate sat at 5.0% in September, and job postings have slipped even as wages have climbed — a mixed picture that helps explain why Oregon struggled in the rankings.
WalletHub compared all 50 states across 34 indicators of job-market strength and economic health, according to wallethub.com. The personal-finance site said its data set ranged “from employment growth to the median annual income to the average commute time,” and it calculated each state's overall score by weighting and averaging its performance across those metrics before ranking all 50 states. As KOIN.com reported, Oregon ranked 48th for job opportunities, 46th for unemployment rates, 40th for monthly average starting salary, 35th for median annual income adjusted for cost of living, 28th for job security, 25th for employment growth, and 15th for average commute time.
West Virginia ranked last overall, with Oregon, Pennsylvania and Florida rounding out the bottom four, according to usatoday.com. Per KOIN.com's reporting on the WalletHub data, the five worst states for jobs were West Virginia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Florida and Louisiana, while Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and New Hampshire took the top five spots. Washington state ranked sixth, according to the same report.
Why the Plains States Topped the List
Nebraska came out on top as the best state for jobs, while North Dakota ranked second with a 2.6% unemployment rate, per wallethub.com. Minnesota ranked third, which WalletHub attributed in large part to having the third-highest cost-of-living-adjusted median household income in the country, at nearly $88,000. WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said living in a top jobs state can provide long-term stability and make it easier to find and retain work, with competitive compensation and benefits, according to KOIN.com.
Nationally, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in September, up from 4.1% in August, according to ktvz.com. WalletHub also described the country's labor force participation as relatively strong, per KOIN.com's account of the study. Oregon's own jobless rate has remained stuck between 5.0% and 5.3% for 19 consecutive months dating back to March 2025, the station reported.
A Mixed Monthly Snapshot for Oregon Workers
Oregon's unemployment rate actually ticked down slightly to 5.0% in September from 5.1% in August, and nonfarm payroll employment grew by 5,800 jobs that month, the same report noted. But the gains haven't been broad-based: over the preceding 12 months, total nonfarm payroll employment in the state rose by just 2,600 jobs, a 0.1% increase. Construction led September's sector gains with 2,000 added jobs, followed by health care and social assistance with 1,700 and leisure and hospitality with 1,300, while retail trade posted the steepest monthly decline, shedding 1,500 jobs.
Oregon had also posted year-over-year job losses every month from January through August 2026, according to oregonlive.com. That outlet noted Oregon wasn't alone in its elevated unemployment — California, Washington and Nevada also had jobless rates above 5% during the same period.
Postings Shrink Even as Pay Climbs
A separate report found Oregon job postings slipped 0.5% quarter over quarter in September, even as national postings gained 1.2%, according to oregonbusinessindustry.com. Year over year, Oregon postings fell 0.6% while national postings grew 5.7%. Yet wages for the jobs that are posted have jumped: Oregon's median full-time posted salary reached $67,600, 9.9% above the national median, and the state's median posted salary grew 12.1% year over year — more than double the 5.6% national increase, per the same report.
The gains and losses varied sharply by industry. Year-over-year postings increased the most in production, business services and transportation, while they fell the most in nursing, education and restaurants, according to the Oregon Business & Industry report. Geographically, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro was the only one of 10 tracked Oregon metro areas to post quarter-over-quarter growth in job listings, while the Hermiston-Pendleton area saw postings run 32% above the prior year, driven largely by Amazon's hiring for data-center development.
