Oregon Insight: wood products’ decline was steep – but it remains vital in rural counties

The slow rebound begins, veneer mill hires eight people

Oregon’s wood manufacturing jobs declined 41% between 2005 and 2011.Jamie Francis/The Oregonian

A weekly look inside the state’s economy.

Oregon’s wood products manufacturing sector has shed more than half its workforce since 1990, but an analysis by the Oregon Employment Department finds it still plays an essential economic role in several rural communities.

Regional state labor economist Brian Rooney found the number of Oregon forest products jobs plunged from 46,100 in 1990 to just 23,000 in 2017.

Three factors were responsible for the drop, according to Rooney: environmental restrictions on timber harvest on federal lands; new technologies that resulted in more productive mills – with fewer employees; and the Great Recession, which brought housing construction nearly to a halt.

The recession was especially devastating, with Oregon’s wood manufacturing jobs declining 41% between 2005 and 2011.

Wood manufacturing employment has been rising modestly in the years since then and Rooney notes that wood products is economically essential in several rural counties. It still makes up more than 6% of all jobs in Douglas, Curry, Crook and Lake counties.

In a separate report, state economist Josh Lehner notes that growth in tourism-related jobs has offset the decline in timber-related ones in some places. However, Lehner notes that tourism-related jobs in Coos County pay about half the $52,000 timber jobs pay – meaning they don’t really compensate for the economic losses.

Send suggestions for other notable economic indicators to mrogoway@oregonian.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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