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Career seekers wondering what jobs Portland Oregon has to offer may benefit from a recent report.

The Oregon Employment Department recently released a report detailing the job vacancies in the Portland Tri-County area, and found that during the spring of this year, there were about 8,575 available jobs.

Of those jobs, one-tenth were left unfilled for at least two months. The 25 occupations with the most vacancies accounted for only 42 percent of all job openings, meaning there was a wide array of open jobs beyond the top 25.

The most demanded jobs included: registered nurses with 451 vacancies, personal and home care aides with 235 openings and retail salespersons with 224 vacancies. Occupations in personal care, social services, education, architecture and engineering and healthcare had higher rates of long-term vacancy.

When it comes to specific industries, those with the most job openings included: healthcare and social assistance, educational services, accommodation and food services and retail trade. Those four industries combined represented 61 percent of all vacancies in the Portland area.

More than 50 percent of all vacancies required candidates to have an education beyond high school, while 45 percent required a license or certificate. More than four out of five openings in the educational services, manufacturing and professional and technical industries required post-secondary education.

On the other end of the scale, fewer than one in five openings in accommodation and food services; retail trade; arts, entertainment and recreation; transportation and warehousing; and agriculture required post-secondary education.

One-fourth of the available jobs paid workers at least $20 per hour, while 28 percent paid less than $10 per hour.

Labels: Jobs Portland Oregon

A new career center will help people find jobs in Phoenix Arizona.

Goodwill of Central Arizona recently announced that it will open a new career center in northeast Phoenix. The grand opening, scheduled to take place next week, will not only offer resources to help candidates find work, but also will feature companies and employers who are looking to hire, such as Wells Fargo.

The career centers help job seekers create the best possible applications and resumes and help employers connect with local workers. It is estimated that the career centers throughout the Phoenix area will serve about 25,000 people this year. So far, 4,600 people have been placed in local jobs.

"It's a community that doesn't have a career center, and there is a need in that community," Michael Shawn Burchett, career services coordinator for Goodwill of Central Arizona, told the azcentral.com. "It's for individuals who need help presenting themselves to employers. We find that a lot of individuals have the qualities, but they might not be as skilled as they can be at creating resumes and selling themselves to employers."

Burchett added that Census jobs have been very popular as of late. It is thought the Census will create 3,000 to 5,000 jobs in Phoenix. Other popular jobs include office work, industrial work, drivers, warehouse work, healthcare and customer service.

"The job market has stayed about as difficult as it's been all year," he added. "We've seen a few signs of employers using our services a little more than they had earlier in the year, but we still are seeing the same increasing numbers of individuals that are unemployed. So far, the unemployment numbers are remaining the same at about 9 percent."

Labels: Jobs in Phoenix Arizona

The federal stimulus plan has created thousands of jobs in Oregon.

The State of Oregon recently released a report that found the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has created and preserved more than 8,000 full-time jobs throughout the state since February.

"With this report, I can say with full confidence that the Recovery Act provided Oregon a much needed parachute for what was a free falling economy," Gov. Ted Kulongoski said.

Not only did the ARRA create several jobs immediately after it was created, but it also helped thousands of state residents secure food stamps, unemployment benefits and funding for education.

Overall, Oregon is expecting to receive $3.9 billion in ARRA funding during a three-year period. Of that, about $1 billion has been expended, with only $269 million falling within new federal reporting requirements.

"This investment in states across the nation represents not only an unprecedented infusion of dollars to the state and local economies," the Kulongoski said. "It also represents an unprecedented level of public transparency and accountability for how those dollars are invested."

Oregon also recently launched a Web site that provides details about quarterly reports to the federal government as part of a plan for commitment to transparency and accountability for ARRA funding.

"With our new Web site, you can see that thousands of Oregonians in every corner of the state have been touched by the Recovery Act," Kulongoski added. "Whether through food stamps, unemployment benefits or helping keep our school doors open - thousands of Oregonians have received a helping hand from our federal partners to help minimize the pain caused by this difficult economic period."

Labels: Jobs in Oregon

Unemployed workers haven't had a lot of luck finding Las Vegas jobs lately, but a new mega development project slated to open in December could turn that around.

MGM Mirage recently issued what it is calling the "single biggest hiring opportunity in the history of the U.S." The company plans to hire 12,000 employees to work at CityCenter, an $8.5 billion complex of shops, condos, boutique hotels, restaurants and casinos scheduled to open at the end of this year.

As of September 20, CityCenter had already received 160,000 applications for the 12,000 available jobs. Of the available positions, 4,000 have been offered to current MGM employees.

"This concentration of new jobs is not happening anywhere else in the U.S.," MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren told SmartBrief. "To have it happen [in Las Vegas] will have a profound effect."

According to various reports, the 12,000 employees to be hired will include 4,280 food and beverage servers, including 165 master cooks; 1,300 casino workers, including dealers and slot operators; 1,200 hotel employees; 130 massage therapists and manicurists; and 130 responsible for handling lighting, props and other functions for the Cirque du Soleil.

The project, described as a 67-acre city within a city, will include an electric CityCenter Tram and an 8.5 megawatt co-generation plant. Properties within CityCenter expected to hire include the Vdara Hotel, the Mandarin Oriental non-gaming hotel, the Aria Resort and Casino and the Crystals, a retail and dining district.

There's no denying that Las Vegas could certainly benefit from the abundance of jobs CityCenter is offering. The city has seen its unemployment rate grow as jobs continue to be lost and as the gaming and real estate industries continue to decline.

During August, the Las Vegas-Paradise area saw its unemployment rate increase from 13.1 percent to 13.4 percent, which was higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.7 percent. The area has not seen its unemployment rate decrease since April 2008, when it went from 5.2 percent to 5 percent.

The area had a total non-farm employment of 846,900 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 851,800 workers during July and a 6.7 percent decrease from last year.

Labels: Las Vegas jobs