Coos County’s Rebounding Wood Products Manufacturing

Many smaller and rural Oregon counties have yet to recover job losses from the past recession, including Coos County. Recently, the county had gained back about 45 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn, trailing the statewide recovery pace and growing much faster than neighboring Curry County.

One of the industries contributing to Coos County’s recent job growth is wood product manufacturing. Historically important to Coos County’s settlement, this resource-based industry remains a pillar of the South Coast economy. Today, wood product manufacturing is experiencing employment resurgence, returning to a level last seen during the housing boom-era of 2004 and 2005. Coos County fared much better than both Curry and Douglas counties in regaining higher-wage jobs as well. Coos County regained about 70 percent of higher-wage job lost during the downturn. Many of those are in wood product manufacturing where in Coos County those jobs have an annual average wage of $48,746, exceeding the statewide average of $45,159.

To learn more about wood product manufacturing in Coos County, read Regional Economist Guy Tauer's article "Coos County’s Rebounding Wood Products Manufacturing".