Most Oregonians work at small businesses — or really, really big ones

Oregonians do every kind of job for every type of business, from making craft beer at the smallest microbreweries to manufacturing semiconductors for multinational corporations.

It turns out that most Oregonians in the private sector work for businesses at one end of the spectrum or the other. Their employers are either really small or very, very large.

Nearly 40% of the state’s private sector workers are at firms with fewer than 50 employees, according to a new report from the Oregon Employment Department. Most of the rest work for companies that employ more than 500 Oregonians.

Why is Oregon’s workforce divided up this way? Two reasons.

There are more than 110,000 Oregon businesses with fewer than 50 employees. That’s more than 9 out of 10 businesses in the state. So even though each one doesn’t have many workers, collectively they employ a large share of the state’s workforce.

The other reason is that while Oregon has just 321 businesses employing more than 500, those companies tend to have huge numbers of workers.

“Even though those firms are fewer in number, it doesn’t take as many for them to have a larger percentage of the workforce,” said Anna Johnson, economic analyst at the employment department.

Oregon is different from the nation in this respect, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, about half of workers are at firms with more than 500 employees – about 10 percentage points higher than in Oregon.

That could reflect the fact that Oregon has very few large corporate headquarters (just two, Nike and Lithia Motors).

The difference may also stem from how the numbers are compiled. Federal and state data may classify the same company differently because they measure firm size in different ways. A company with a large national workforce but relatively few Oregon employees could be counted as a large employer in federal data but not in Oregon’s state figures.

Bigger employers tend to pay better in Oregon. Those under 50 employees pay less than average. Very big companies, with more than 500 employees, pay a third more than small businesses.

“Larger firms may be more likely to have high-paid executives or typically be in higher paying industries,” Johnson said.

Some lower-paying industries, like restaurants, bars and hotels, tend to pay less and have fewer employees.

This is Oregon Insight, The Oregonian’s weekly look at the numbers behind the state’s economy. View past installments here.

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