Multnomah County Employment Trends FY 2022 - FY 2024: Full Report (Part 2)

This page includes part 2 of the report, which describes information about employment actions (e.g., hires, separations, and other HR actions). Part 1 of the report includes the introduction and demographic overview of the workforce.

Trends in Hiring

Definitions related to hiring

• Hires: When referred to as simply “hires,” this employee action includes new hires, rehires, and temporary to regular hires
• Temporary to Regular Hires: Employees who are hired from a temporary, limited duration^[1], or on-call position into a regular position.
• Hire Rate: The number of hires divided by the total number of employees. This can be calculated within groups as the number of hires in the group divided by the number of employees in the group. For example, if there is one new hire in a division of 10 total employees, the rate would be 0.10, or 10%.

Overall hire and separation rates

Both hire and separation rates increased in FY 2022 for regular employees. Since that time, however, hiring has outpaced separations, resulting in overall growth of the County workforce. Hiring slowed in FY 2024 to 9.2%, down from 11.5% in FY 2023 and 12.7% in FY 2022. The rate of temporary to regular hires also declined during this period, from 1.6% in FY 2022 to 1.1% in FY 2023, and 0.9% in FY 2024.

Differences in hiring rates for regular represented employees

Analysis of hiring across multiple demographic categories (department, division, employee type, employee level, bargaining unit, telework status, disability status, gender identity, generation, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and veteran status) showed relatively few groups were hired at levels either lower or higher than would be expected, given their proportion of the overall workforce. Importantly, there were no statistically significant differences identified among non-represented hires. As a result, only the hiring rates for regular represented employees are shown in the table below (Table 3). 

Some of the statistically significant low or high hiring rates reflect naturally-occurring population patterns, like generational shifts among working-aged adults. Our new hires are also more diverse than the current workforce, which reflects the increasing diversity of the overall labor pool as well as changes in recruitment efforts by the County. Because of this trend, comparing the demographics of new hires to the existing workforce often shows that new hires are more diverse than current employees.

Hires demographics

Graphs and tables are available to provide the demographic information for regular County hires from FY 2022 through FY 2024. This information can also be viewed interactively on the Multnomah County Employment Trends Hires Dashboard, which also allows for further disaggregation of demographic information by department, division, employee type, employee level, and union.

Trends in Separations

Definitions related to separations

• Involuntary: Involuntary separations refer to separations that are the result of unacceptable attendance, incomplete trial service period, failure to meet job expectations, policy violation, or other disciplinary actions.
• No Fault: Occurs when the separation is neither involuntary nor voluntary. For example, the end of a temporary position in which the employee was hired for a specific length of time or when a layoff happens.
• Retirement: When an employee retires from County service.
• Voluntary: Voluntary separations occur when an employee leaves the County for reasons other than those listed above. This could include reasons like returning to school, other employment, or family obligations.
• Separation Rate: The number of separations divided by the total number of employees. This can be calculated within groups as the number of separations in the group divided by the number of employees in the group. For example, if there is one separation in a division of 10 total employees, the rate would be 0.10, or 10%.

Differences in patterns across separation types

Separations increased in FY 2022 compared to FY 2021 (see Figure 11 in 'Trends in Hiring' section), primarily due to an increase in voluntary separations. For all types of separations, the separation rate remained relatively steady from FY 2022 (10.7%) to FY 2023 (10.6%), but declined in FY 2024 (8.3%). 

The best point of comparison available comes from the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) FY 2022 “Human Capital Report,” which publishes information for government sector organizations.^[2] According to the report, the median turnover rate for the government sector during FY 2022 was 10%, which closely aligns with the County’s 10.7% separation rate that year. 

Additionally, this most recent decrease in overall separation rate obscures notable differences across types of separation. The finding shows that rates for voluntary, retirement, and no fault separations all declined or stayed the same. However, involuntary separations actually increased during this period, from a rate of 0.4% to 1.3% among the regular County workforce.

Demographic differences within the overall separation rate

Hispanic and Latino employees (regular represented and regular non-represented) had relatively low separation rates in FY 2022: The overall separation rate for Latino or Hispanic employees increased from 8.4% in FY 2022 to 11.6% in FY 2023, but decreased back closer to previous levels in FY 2024 (7.9%). While FY 2023 and FY 2024 closely align with overall County rates, the lower separation rate in FY 2022 is unique.
 

Queer employees (regular represented and regular non-represented) had relatively high voluntary separations rates in FY 2022: For queer employees (regular represented and regular non-represented), there was a unique pattern specifically regarding voluntary separations. In FY 2022 (12.9%) and FY 2023 (10.2%) voluntary separation rate for queer employees was higher than the countywide voluntary separation rate of 7.3% and 6.7%, respectively. However, that difference narrowed in FY 2024, with the voluntary separation rate for queer employees dropping to 5.8%, closer to the countywide rate of 4.5%.

Frontline Black or African American employees had higher separations in FY 2023 compared to the overall County rate, whereas Asian employees had lower levels of separations: In FY 2022, differences in separation rate across all employee levels — including frontline, non-supervising employees — were not statistically significant. 

However, in FY 2023 when the separation rate of all frontline employees was 10.6%, frontline Black or African American employees had a higher rate of separation (13.7%) while frontline Asian employees had a statistically significantly lower separation rate (6.2%) — a statistically significant difference from countywide. In FY 2024, the respective separation rates of the two groups became more similar to overall countywide patterns, no longer resulting in a statistically significant difference. 

Black or African American employees who are either supervisors or managers (regular only) had higher separations in FY 2024 compared to the overall County rate: In FY 2024, 17 of the 89 total Black or African American employees in management positions (i.e., frontline supervisors, middle management, senior management, and County or department leadership) separated from the County, a rate of 19.1%. Retirements accounted for some of the separations (4.5% of separations for Black or African American were retirement) and none were no fault separations (e.g., layoffs).   

Note: Although all groups were tested, it is often difficult to confidently assess groups of 30 or fewer employees accurately using statistical analysis. As a result, groups that are relatively small may not be specified in this report due to our lack of confidence in the result. We are also more likely to be able to identify small shifts in large groups because of the availability of more data. However, the Multnomah County Employment Trends Separations Dashboard provides descriptive information for groups as small as 10 individuals. Groups of fewer than 10 employees are not shown to protect employee confidentiality. 

Involuntary separations have increased

The overall proportion of involuntary separations — those that result from a disciplinary action or incomplete trial service period — among regular represented employees has increased, largely due to the growing number of trial service separations over time (13 total in FY 2022, 30 in FY 2023, and 35 in FY 2024). 

Trial service separations make up the largest type of involuntary separations (40.3% of all involuntary separations across all three fiscal years). Trial service separations occur during the trial service period, which occurs during the first year of employment. Table 3 shows higher involuntary separation rates among employees with less than one year of tenure. Years with higher hiring rates may naturally have higher involuntary separations as a result due to the relationship between tenure and trial service.

While Asian employees' involuntary separations increased in FY 2024 compared to prior years, the rate was lower than countywide rates in all fiscal years for this group. On the other hand, the rate for Black or African American employees increased in FY 2023 and remained higher than countywide rates in FY 2024. This trend in separations reiterates the importance of thoughtful onboarding processes for new employees since many of the involuntary separations were trial service separations. 

There was also a smaller uptick in the number of separations resulting from policy violations (11 total in FY 2022, 15 in FY 2023, and 18 in FY 2024), which made up 20.5% of all involuntary separations across the three fiscal years. Other reasons for involuntary separations from FY 2022 through FY 2024 include: attendance unacceptable (9.0% of all involuntary separations across all three fiscal years), expectations not being met (17.1%), resignations in lieu of terminations (8.7%), and declined to state (4.5%). 

*We could not identify one specific sub-type of involuntary separation that was likely to affect one race or ethnicity group more than another. This may be impacted by the relatively small number of these types of actions, although the frequency is increasing. 

Exit survey findings 

When employees voluntarily separate from the County they receive a survey in Workday about their experiences. Of the 1,793 voluntary and retirement separations between FY 2022 and FY 2024, 754 separated employees completed the survey (42%). This information should, however, be interpreted with caution since employees may not always want or feel incentivized to provide  the full range of their experience. For example, a separating employee may not want to provide candid or negative feedback if they feel it may hurt their chances of being employed by the County again in the future. Still, the results provide some important context about separating employees.

One of the exit survey questions asks for the primary reason the employee is leaving the County (respondent can only choose one option). The most common reason (other than retirement) is for other employment, which accounted for over 40% of voluntary separations in FY 2024 (Table 6). However, the rate of separations for other employment has decreased over time, declining from 54.9% of exit survey responses in FY 2022, to 51.3% in FY 2023, to 43.4% in FY 2024. This may align with reports of a tighter job market during this same period. Conversely, the rate of people saying they are leaving primarily to attend school increased during this same period, from 7.9% in FY 2022, to 9.0% in FY 2023, to 12.7% in FY 2024. 

Separating employees are asked about their level of agreement (from strongly disagree to strongly agree) to a series of statements related to their experience at the County. Overall, responses on the exit survey were relatively positive (i.e., on the agreement side of the scale), though their perceptions may be skewed by the voluntary nature of their separation from the County. The highest average response was about feeling respect from their supervisor, while the lowest was perception of advancement opportunities.
 

For these questions, there were few statistically significant differences based on race and ethnicity or sex — the only two demographic groups with a sufficient number of responses for statistical analysis. Black or African American employees were more likely to agree that they had opportunities to advance (2.96 average on a 4-point agreement scale, compared to 2.78 for all respondents). Additionally, female employees were slightly more likely to disagree with the statement “I had opportunities to advance” (2.74 average on a 4-point agreement scale, compared to 2.78 for all respondents). 

Employees also had the opportunity to provide a comment. A review of employees’ comments revealed five primary themes:

1. Connection to community: Employees are by and large dedicated to their communities and felt that they positively contributed to the larger, external community the County serves. Employees also discussed appreciation for internal communities, such as their immediate teams and Employee Resource Groups.
2. Development/advancement: While many employees felt that they had ample opportunities for professional development, they did not report that this led to career advancement. This finding may be related to the high rate of employees saying they are leaving for school and other employment opportunities.
3. Job needs: Among voluntarily separating employees, many also discussed what they would like to see more of at the County related to their job. Employees identified job flexibility (including telework and scheduling), policy accountability, and better support during onboarding as important job needs.
4. Job stress: Employees cited a number of factors as having contributed to additional stress at work, including workload, feeling micromanaged, not being paid enough for the difficulty involved in the work, and insufficient staffing levels.
5. Diversity, inclusion, and representation: Many employees also reported that they valued seeing representation of diverse communities in the workforce and equity efforts at the County, and encouraged the continuation of this work. 

Separations demographics

Graphs and tables are available to provide demographics of regular employees who separated between FY 2022 and FY 2024. This information can also be viewed interactively on the Multnomah County Employment Trends Separations Dashboard, which allows for further disaggregation of demographic information by department, division, employee type, employee level, union, and separation type.

Trends in Additional Types of Employment Actions

Definitions related to additional employment actions

• Promotion: A movement of an employee to a job profile that has a higher maximum rate than the employee's current job profile.
• Demotions: Demotions are when an employee moves to a position of a lower classification. Demotions can be voluntary or involuntary; involuntary demotions are generally a result of disciplinary action.
• Work out of class (WOC) When a Regular employee works in a higher job profile for more than five days but less than six months. The employee usually returns to their previous position unless they are formally promoted to the higher job profile.
• Reclassification: When a manager or employee requests to change the job profile assigned to an existing position. Reclassifications may occur when the primary focus of a position has evolved, minimum qualifications have changed, or major duties are added or removed. Reclassification does not always result in a pay grade change or an adjustment in an employee’s rate of pay.
• Temporary assignment: When a Regular employee works in an equivalent or lower job profile for more than five days but less than six months. With a temporary assignment, the employee usually returns to their previous position. This is different from Temporary employees, who are hired from outside the County into a temporary position. See below for results related to Temporary employees.
• Limited duration assignment: When a Regular employee takes an assignment that is more than six months but less than two years. When the assignment ends, the employee has rights to return to their previous job profile. This is different from limited duration employees, who are hired from outside the County into a limited duration position. See below for results related to limited duration employees.
• Lead status: When an employee takes on a lead role on a project or team.
• Rate: The number of the employees who experienced the action divided by the total number of employees. This can be calculated within groups as the number of promotions in the group divided by the number of employees in the group. For example, if there is one promotion in a division of 10 total employees, the rate would be 0.10, or 10%.

The following graphs and tables below provide overall rates of each type of employee action from FY 2022 through FY 2024. Information about the demographic information can also be viewed interactively on the Multnomah County Employment Trends Other Actions Dashboard, which allows for further disaggregation of demographic information by department, division, employee type, employee level, and union. 

Since the rates of these actions are much lower than hires and separations, statistical analysis becomes unreliable for demographic groups with high rates of missing information (e.g., gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, and disability status). While these can be explored in the dashboard, statistical testing was not performed.

Trends in promotions

The promotion rate for regular employees at the County has declined slightly over time. However, compared to the government sector in general, the County’s rate is relatively high. The most recent and reputable point of comparison comes from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) “Human Capital Report,” which looks at FY 2022 of government sector organizations.^[2] According to the report, the median promotion rate for the government sector in FY 2022 was 4%, lower than the County’s rate then of 7.7%. 

Since promotions are relatively uncommon, these employee movements were combined between FY 2022 and FY 2024 for the purposes of statistical analyses. The countywide promotions rate was 15.5% for all years combined. 

Employees who identify as two or more races have a statistically significantly higher promotion rate (20.3%) compared to the countywide rate, while White employees have a slightly lower rate (14.0%). Across all three fiscal years, employees who had one to five of tenure had a higher rate of promotion (15.6%) compared to other tenure groups — but only for frontline staff and frontline supervisors, indicating that this finding may be associated with general career trajectory patterns. Additionally, across all employee levels, frontline supervisors had the highest rate of promotion at 29.7%. 

Note: Since employees can be promoted more than once, an employee who is promoted multiple times into different levels of the organization are included in the total number for each level. However, the countywide total number of promoted employees only counts that individual once.

Promotion by employee type (represented vs. non-represented)

We also examined whether employees who received promotions were regular represented or regular non-represented employees before their promotion, and whether they were promoted into represented or non-represented roles. We examined the three main types of promotional movements: non-represented to non-represented, represented to represented, and represented to non-represented. A fourth promotional movement, non-represented to represented positions, is possible, but is rare and was not considered for these analyses.

In the majority of promotions, employees remained within the same employee type — represented employees were most commonly promoted into represented positions, and non-represented employees were most commonly promoted into non-represented positions. In FY 2022, 16.6% of all promotions were from represented positions into non-represented positions. This rate remained relatively steady in FY 2023 at 16.4%, but slightly increased in FY 2024 to 18.2%.
 

We also examined the various demographic categories of regular represented employees who received promotions in relation to whether they were promoted into represented positions or non-represented positions. Since some demographic groups had few promotions in a single fiscal year, we combined promotions between FY 2022 and FY 2024. In total, there were 947 promotions of regular represented employees between FY 2022 and FY 2024. Of these promotions, 187 (19.7%) were into regular non-represented positions and 760 (80.3%) were into regular represented positions.

No statistically significant differences were found across race and ethnicity groups in the percentage of regular represented employees that were promoted into non-represented positions. However, there were statistically significant generational differences in the rate of promotions of regular represented employees into non-represented positions:

• Generation Z employees (N = 27 total promotions): did not have any promotions of regular represented employees into regular non-represented positions
• Millennial employees (N = 308 total promotions): 18.8% of promotions from a regular represented position were into a non-represented position.
• Generation X employees (N = 221 total promotions): 24.0% of promotions from a regular represented position were into a non-represented position
• Baby Boomer employees (N = 43 total promotions): 18.6% of promotions from a regular represented position were into a non-represented position

There were also differences across departments. The rates of regular represented employees being promoted into non-represented positions rather than other represented positions in the Department of Community Justice (29.5%) and Health Department (43.8%) were significantly higher than the countywide rate of 19.9%. In contrast, these rates in the Department of County Human Services ( 11.9%), the District Attorney’s Office (4.9%)^[3], and the Library (10.5%) were significantly lower than the countywide rate. 

Trends in demotions

Demotions occur rarely at the County, affecting around 1% of regular employees in each fiscal year between FY 2022 and FY 2024. Demotions can be voluntary or involuntary, and both types of demotion were analyzed across demographic groups. 

Since the annual number of demotions is relatively small, all fiscal years were combined in statistical analyses. No statistically significant demographic differences were found for demotions. Additionally, when numbers are relatively small, statistical significance can be more difficult to determine which may impact this type of action.

Trends in work out of class and temporary assignment

Work out of class (WOC) and temporary assignments were analyzed together due to both small numbers and similarity of actions. WOC is used when employees are in a temporary position for less than six months, whereas temporary assignments are used when employees are in the position for longer than six months. This analysis only includes employees who moved within the organization for a temporary assignment, not new employees who are hired into a position that is identified as temporary. The overall rate of WOC and temporary assignments has remained relatively stable over time.

Since WOC and temporary assignments are relatively uncommon, data of these employee movements were combined for FY 2022 through FY 2024 for the purposes of these analyses. The countywide WOC and temporary assignment rate was 9.9% for all years combined. If an employee experienced the action multiple times, which is frequent for WOC, they were only counted one time for the combined analysis.

Overall, 20.9% of WOC and temporary assignments occur for non-represented positions, more frequently than for represented positions. These results are mirrored in relation to employee level: the rates of WOC and temporary assignments for frontline supervisors (18.7%), middle management (29.6%), and senior management (23.2%) were each significantly higher than the countywide rate of 9.9%. In contrast, the non-supervising frontline staff WOC and temporary assignment rate of 8.0% was significantly lower than the countywide rate. 
 

In addition, female employees were slightly more likely to experience a WOC or temporary work assignment (10.2%) compared to the countywide rate, whereas the rate for male employees was slightly lower (8.3%). Although non-binary employees were included in analyses, the smaller size of the group made the results inconclusive. Millennials also had a higher rate of WOC or temporary work assignments (11.3%) compared to the countywide rate.

Trends in reclassifications

At a rate of less than 2% for each of the reviewed fiscal years, the rate of reclassifications was generally low. Reclassifications can be requested by a manager, by the employee, or both. Additionally, a position can be reclassified into either a higher or lower level position.

Since reclassifications are relatively uncommon, data of this action were combined for FY 2022 through FY 2024 for these analyses. When totaled across three years, the countywide reclassification rate was 2.9%. 

Reclassifications were more likely to occur for routine telework employees (4.9%) and hybrid teleworking employees (4.8%), indicating that work may have shifted for some of these positions at a higher rate. Ad hoc telework and onsite employees did not differ in a statistically significant degree from the countywide rate. There were also higher rates among middle managers (7.5%) and non-represented employees (5.2%). There is likely overlap between these groups (e.g., middle managers may be more likely to telework).

Reclassifications were also more likely among both American Indian and Alaska Native employees (9.3%) and Slavic employees (7.8%). However, it should also be noted that these are relatively small employee groups (n = 86 and n = 51, respectively, across the three fiscal years). As a result, even small numbers of employees in these groups experiencing a reclassification can have a large impact on the overall rate. On the other hand, Asian employees had a low reclassification rate (1.3%).

Trends in limited duration assignments (LDA)

Rates of limited duration assignments were compared across employee demographics. Since limited duration assignments were relatively uncommon (affecting less than 3% of County staff in each fiscal year), data from between FY 2022 and FY 2024 were combined for a countywide rate of 5.7%, which was used for the statistical analysis. 

The analysis found that Latino and Hispanic employees (8.8%), as well as Middle Eastern employees (15.0%), had higher rates of limited duration assignments. Conversely, White employees were less likely to experience a limited duration assignment compared to the rate for all other race and ethnicity groups (4.3%). 

The findings related to race and ethnicity are reflective of the more diverse workforce hired in recent years. Limited duration assignments were more likely to occur for staff within their first one to five years of employment (8.5%), a more diverse group than the County overall, than employee groups of longer tenure lengths. Limited duration assignments were also more frequent among AFSCME Local 88 employees (6.8%), which is also more diverse than the County as a whole. 

There was also a finding for gender, which is likely tied to department use of LDA. Female employees were more likely to experience an LDA action (6.1%) compared to males (3.2%). The Department of County Human Services (DCHS) and Health Department (HD) have the highest proportion of female employees (both over 70% female). Conversely the Sheriff’s Office has the lowest proportion (27.9% female for the three fiscal years combined). Similarly, the Sheriff’s Office had a low utilization of LDA (0.1%). This creates an interaction between gender and the use of LDA as the demographics of the department impact this finding.

Trends in lead status

As only represented employees are eligible for lead status, the following graph below reflects only the rate among represented employees. The rate of lead utilization has gone up slightly over time and may offer an opportunity for employee development among frontline employees.

When data for lead status were combined for the three years, the countywide rate for represented employees was 8.7%. The only demographic difference that was identified was for generation — a finding that may be tied to employee career development. Both Baby Boomers (11.9%) and Generation X (11.7%) employees were more likely to be in lead status.

Continue to the Department Summaries

Continue to the Appendix

Back to Report Homepage

^[1] Limited duration positions occur when an employee is hired from outside the County into a limited duration position for up to two years. Employees who move from this limited duration position to a regular position are classified as temporary to regular hires. However, these types of hires are separate from limited duration assignments (which occurs when a Regular employee takes an assignment that is more than 6 months but less than 2 years). 

^[2] Society for Human Resource Management. "SHRM Benchmarking: Human Capital Report." 2022. Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/content/dam/en/shrm/research/benchmarking/Human%20Capital%20Report-SECTOR-GOVERNMENT.pdf

^[3] Overall, the District Attorney’s Office has one of the highest promotion rates across all county departments. Many of these promotions occur within the prosecuting attorneys career pathway (e.g., from Deputy District Attorney 1 to Deputy District Attorney 2), which are represented positions. So, the majority of promotions are from represented positions to represented positions.