Oregon’s Forest Sector

Forest sector-related employment in Oregon totaled 61,100 in 2017, which accounted for 3 percent of Oregon’s workforce. Forest-related jobs paid relatively well, with an annual average wage of $54,200, roughly 6 percent more than $51,100 for all jobs covered by unemployment insurance in 2017.

Oregon’s forest sector falls into five major categories: primary forest products; secondary forest products; forest management; forestry support; and forestry-dependent industries. Primary forest products made up one-third of the forest sector total with 19,300 jobs and 600 nonemployers. Within primary forest products, sawmills, paper manufacturing, and softwood veneer and plywood manufacturing accounted for three-fourths of all jobs.

Forestry support accounted for another 22 percent of forest sector employment, with 11,200 jobs and 2,000 reported nonemployers. Of those, more than half (55%) were found in private logging. Support activities for forestry – which includes establishments engaged in forestry economics, forest firefighting, and estimating timber, among other things – made up roughly another one-third (36%) of employment in this category. Similar to primary forest products and forestry support, Oregon’s 11,700 jobs and 500 nonemployers in secondary forest products were concentrated into a couple of industries: millwork (44%), and wood kitchen cabinets and countertops (30%).

Unlike other categories of forest sector employment, the majority of Oregon’s 6,900 forestry management jobs were found in government. Timber tract operations mostly consisted of jobs at the U.S. Forest Service. The other large forestry management industry was administration of conservation programs, which mostly included jobs at the Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Forestry, and in the administration portion of the U.S. Forest Service. The largest source of private employment in forestry management was in corporate offices of forest sector-related firms with most of their employment in other categories.

Learn more about Oregon's forestry sector in the full article written by Senior Economic Analyst Gail Krumenauer.