Nearly half of Oregon's job openings don't pay a living wage, a new study says, and the percentage may be even higher in Jackson County.

The Northwest Job Gap Study, released this week, found that 47 percent of Oregon's job openings in 1996 paid less than $10.07 per hour -- a wage the study found to be the state's average minimum for a single adult to live on without public assistance.

Jobs that will pay the bills were even harder to come by for those with families. For a single adult with two children, the statewide living wage was estimated at $16.36 an hour and 77 percent of the 61,796 openings in 1996 paid less than that.

"We believe working people have known this for a while, that a job is not necessarily a living today," said Brian Hoop, political director of Oregon Action -- one of the study's sponsors. "Not everyone is thriving in what we are told is a booming economy."

The study's findings were based on 1996 labor and wage statistics -- the most recent year for which complete data is available. Statewide living-wage averages were slightly lower than estimates for Jackson County -- which the study found to be one of the state's more expensive places to live.

The higher cost of living here -- combined with wages that are lower than the state average -- make the shortage of living-wage jobs more pronounced, said Rich Rohde of the Rogue Valley's Oregon Action chapter.

"We are a low-wage, part-time, seasonal economy," he said. "While we fall into the high-cost living area, our jobs fit in the low-wage end. We really have a strong need to develop more living-wage jobs."

The research was done by the University of Washington's Northwest Policy Center in Seattle and the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations -- a four-state alliance that includes Oregon Action, Montana People's Action, Idaho Citizen's Network and Washington Citizen Action.

Oregon Action is a statewide organization focused on campaign finance reform, livable wage jobs and tax fairness that claims a constituency of 23,000 low- to moderate-income Oregonians.

The study attempted to define what a living wage is in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana and determine whether enough good-paying jobs are out there. Rohde and Hoop say they hope the findings will help guide economic development and put pressure on businesses to provide more living-wage jobs.

"There are not enough living-wage jobs," Rohde said. "We know we need to create more and we need to know exactly what (a living wage) is."

Researchers estimated monthly costs for five types of households and calculated how much gross income per hour a person or couple working 40 hours a week would need to meet those needs. The needs included food, housing and utilities, transportation, health care, child care, household expenses such as clothing and personal items, savings and taxes.

Statewide, the study says a living wage ranges from $10.07 per hour for a single adult to a combined $17.98 an hour for two working adults with two children.

Since the cost of living varies from place to place in Oregon, the study adjusted those figures for higher-cost places to live -- areas including Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Benton, Lane, Deschutes and Jackson counties.

With less than half of the available jobs meeting the lowest living wage of $10.07 an hour, the study found heavy competition for those jobs -- supporting the conclusion that there aren't enough living-wage positions. There were six job seekers per job opening for positions paying $10.07 or better and 14 per opening for jobs paying $16.36 or better -- the statewide minimum living wage for a single adult with two children.

The study defines job seekers to include people who are unemployed, those working part-time who are seeking full-time positions and "marginally attached and discouraged workers." The last group includes people who have sought work in the past year but not recently enough to be eligible for unemployment.