According to estimates in a survey conducted for the Oregon Employment Department by the Current Employment Statistics program, total nonfarm employment in Morrow County grew by 1,570 jobs, or 51 percent, from 2006 to 2016.
The largest contributor to growth was the manufacturing industry, which added 930 jobs – a 111 percent increase. Over that decade, information, construction and educational and health services all grew by higher percentages than manufacturing, but they added approximately 550 total jobs, fewer than two-thirds as many as manufacturing. Employment in the manufacturing industry climbed from representing 27 percent of the county’s total nonfarm employment in 2006 to representing 38 percent in 2016.
Morrow County’s manufacturing industry includes food, wood product, chemical, nonmetallic mineral product, fabricated metal product, and machinery manufacturing. Food manufacturing is by far the dominant sector. According to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the average annual wage for jobs in all manufacturing in the county in 2016 was $47,498, well below the statewide average annual wage of $67,436. However, Morrow County’s average annual wage of $46,589 for food manufacturing jobs compared very favorably with the average annual wage of $40,453 statewide.
