For every job opening in Oregon, statistics show, the state has five people out of work.

But despite so many people being unemployed, business owners statewide had trouble filling thousands of open positions last year, according to a recent Oregon Employment Department report.

Hundreds of retail and food-service jobs that don’t require more than a high school diploma have sat unfilled, even with double-digit unemployment rates in the region.

The 2012 job vacancy report, released Feb. 25, highlights the trouble some businesses face finding qualified and willing workers, even in a down economy. The report breaks down job vacancies by region and industry. It also shows the percentage of open jobs that are full-time and year-round versus seasonal or part-time, how many require post-high school education and how many are considered “difficult to fill” by employers.

Statewide, it reported, 158,645 residents were unemployed in October. At the same time, employers said they had 31,230 vacancies.

For Central Oregon — a region the study defined as Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Gilliam, Hood River, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler counties — two industries, leisure/hospitality and retail, accounted for nearly 37 percent of the vacancies, versus 20 percent statewide. Those industries were also the two lowest-paying of the 13 included in the report, with wages between $10 and $12 per hour.

Just 2 percent of Central Oregon’s vacant retail and leisure/hospitality jobs last fall required higher education. Yet 36 percent of the hospitality jobs and 41 percent of those in retail have been difficult to fill, employers said.

“Of course, we have a lot of people looking for jobs,” said Jessica Nelson, an employment economist with the Oregon Employment Department and the author of the vacancy report.

“But it’s possible that, especially in some of the lower paid, service-type industries, workers just aren’t looking for jobs in those fields.”

Nelson spent last fall surveying more than 31,000 businesses across the state and 3,300 in the region, asking about their open positions, ability to find workers and average pay.

The results underscored Central Oregon’s high dependence on tourism and the lower- paying jobs it creates.

To be sure, jobs across most industries are out there for the right worker. WorkSource Bend, the city’s local branch of the state Employment Department, currently lists 200 open positions on its website for jobs like bookkeepers, IT managers, bank tellers and custodians. Of those, 82 are indicated as part-time or temporary.

But more than half of the full-time positions require at least a year’s experience, and some require five or more years. For workers without the experience, part-time and low-paying work may be their only option, said Damon Runberg, the Employment Department’s Central Oregon economist.

But some might be discouraged by that type of work, with little prospect for advancement.

“People might not think it’s worth it” to pursue a service-sector job, Runberg said. Sixty-seven percent of the region’s vacant jobs last fall paid less than $15 per hour, and a part-time job is unlikely to offer benefits.

Not all of the vacant jobs are low-paying, however. Perhaps no industry shows a greater disconnect between the potential for a good wage and the number of applicants than trucking.

The $49,000 annual salary alone would seem enough incentive to keep the jobs filled.That’s the average pay for one of the 210 drivers at Central Oregon Truck Co., said CEO Rick Williams. Some drivers make up to $70,000.

“I’d love to have 500 drivers,” Williams said.

But adding workers has been a challenge.

He spends thousands of dollars in employment advertising across the country because there just aren’t enough qualified local drivers with good insurance histories.

“Drivers are aging,” he said. “Most are getting into their 50s or later, and there’s no pathway to get folks into trucking at an earlier age.”

As a region, Central Oregon had 130 vacant transportation jobs last fall, according to Nelson’s survey. The average pay for the openings was $26.01 an hour, the survey reported.

But a $49,000 salary doesn’t happen overnight. Drivers need several years of training in order to learn how to “drive efficiently,” Williams said, minimizing fuel use over long distances.

Most trucking companies want drivers to have three years of experience before being hired, he said. It puts young drivers in a Catch-22 situation. They “don’t have the money to sustain themselves while they learn. That’s the problem.”

Ninety-one percent of the region’s open transportation jobs were permanent, or year-round, positions, according to Nelson’s survey.

For the region as a whole, however, just 58 percent of vacant jobs in Central Oregon were permanent, the lowest by far of any region in the state. Statewide, 82 percent of vacancies were for permanent positions.

“Because of tourism’s impact on our area, there’s always going to be cyclical employment” with an emphasis on temporary jobs, said Jon Stark, Redmond manager of Economic Development for Central Oregon. Coming out of a recession, an even higher reliance on temporary work is likely as employers test the waters but hesitate before committing to permanent workers.

Higher education is part of the equation for creating more permanent, well-paying jobs in Central Oregon, said Carolyn Eagan, business advocate with the city of Bend.

But on-the-job career, technical and computer training plays just as big a role as a college education. Electronics skills can help workers transfer from fields like wood products to electronic products assembly, even brewing.

Even today’s woodworking jobs take more computer proficiency than ever.

But in Bend, service jobs actually play an important role in economic development, Eagan said. Tourism drives growth in the city, so food-service, bartenders and other hospitality workers help restaurants and tourism establishments bring in dollars from out of the area.

“There’s no doubt we need more of those better-paying jobs that require more skills,” Eagan said. “But not at the expense of those service industry jobs. … I think with Bend, which is what you might call a lifestyle city, you have to have a mix of jobs.”

Job-seeking resources

The Oregon Employment Department lists job openings across the state, including positions in Bend, Redmond and Prineville. Job seekers can search by location or occupation.

For a list of available jobs, log on to www.emp.state.or.us/jobs.