While there has been some negative news surrounding employment in the state of Oregon, there is a silver lining. It seems as though higher education is doing exceptionally well when it comes to employment for the state. Although K-12 schools in the state have had to make many cuts when it comes to teachers and state department have had to put a freeze on hiring, the universities in Oregon are hiring a whole lot of people. Employment within the different universities in the state of Oregon has increased by about 15 percent since 2008, which is when the Great Recession first started. The information was provided by the Office of Economic Analysis. There is not one single other sector that has seen this type of growth.

Ever since February of 2008, the private sector and K-12 education have seen a larger decline in the number of people employed. A total of around 100,000 people have been cut from jobs within the private side of this. At one point in time, the state government did see an increase in hiring but that was back when the recession was truly at its worse and more citizens within the state of Oregon needed assistance. Over the past few years, that type of hiring has slow downed as well. For universities, on the other hand, hiring seems to be thriving.

One economist for the economic analysis office, Josh Lehner, says the reason there is such an increase in hiring for universities is because during the recession, many people chose to go back to school as a way of furthering their education so that they could get a better job in the future. With so many people attending the universities, it was necessary to hire more staff members as well. Lehner has said, “No one else is hiring like this.” He also said, “College enrollment just went through the roof.” And, it seems as though he is correct. Ever since the recession first started back in 2008, enrollment in the different universities within the state of Oregon has drastically increased by a whopping total of 22 percent.

Some people question why their hiring has not increased, especially if the demand for their services has also increase, just like the demand for services at the universities has. However, the big difference between the different services offered is funding. Universities are able to receive funding by increasing tuitions costs and during a time when more people start applying for schooling, the universities were able to increase the tuition cost by a total of 30 percent. By increasing the tuition, the universities were able to generate enough revenue to pay for the increasing number of staff members.