Cook County News Herald

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development report on the timber industry



It is not surprising that almost half of the state’s remaining employment in Forestry and Logging is located in the seven county Northeast Minnesota region, home to most of the state’s forest land. The Forestry and Logging sector is a vital part of the Forest Product Industry which also includes establishments and employment in two other NAICS codes: Wood Product Manufacturing and Paper Manufacturing.

Despite long-term declines, these three sectors still combined for an average of 139 business establishments and 3,078 jobs in 2017 in Northeast Minnesota, accounting for 2.1 percent of total employment in the region.

According to data from DEED’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program, total payroll in the Forest Product Industry neared $213 million in the region in 2017, with an average annual wage of $69,120. That was over $25,000 higher than the average salary across all industries in the region but varied considerably by specialty. Paper Manufacturing had the highest annual wages, while Forest Nurseries and Gathering of Forest Products was among the lowest.

Paper Manufacturing is the largest sector of the Forest Product Industry in the region, with 1,953 jobs at 10 firms. Wages reached $83,000 per year at the region’s huge pulp, paper, and paperboard mills, which averaged close to 275 employees per site. However, paper manufacturing employment also dropped nearly 50 percent since 2000, a loss of more than 1,700 jobs.

Likewise, Wood Product Manufacturing employers cut 66 percent of their payroll since 2000, making it the second fastest declining sector overall in the region so far this century.

The smallest but perhaps most recognizable sector was Forestry and Logging, which had just under 500 jobs at 94 establishments in 2017. Logging is the largest subsector with 442 jobs at 86 firms but was made up primarily of small businesses, with an average of just 5 employees per site.

Unlike the other sectors, employment in Forestry and Logging has been relatively stable over time, declining less than 6 percent from 2000 to 2017 and even experiencing hiring growth in the past five years.

However, the Forest Product Industry has seen significant changes in the age composition of the workforce over the past 10 years. The percentage of workers aged 55 to 64 years increased more than 60 percent from 2007 to 2017, and the concentration of workers aged 65 years and over more than doubled, from 1.8 percent in 2007 to 3.8 percent in 2017.

In contrast, the percentage of workers under 35 years of age stayed mostly the same, accounting for about one-fourth of the total workforce in both years. Jobholders in the 35 to 54-year-old age group were affected the most, dropping from 58.5 percent of the workforce in 2007 to 46.9 percent by 2017, a shift impacted both by the aging of the workforce and on-going job cuts in the industry.

Precise Cuts

The Forest Products Industry is expected to continue cutting jobs in Northeast Minnesota shortly. According to new regional employment projections, Wood Product Manufacturing may decline another 45 percent over the next decade, followed by an 18 percent reduction in Paper Manufacturing, although that would actually account for a larger number of jobs lost. Forestry and Logging are projected to fall just 5.8 percent.

Even if the industry continues slicing jobs, there will still be openings caused by retirements and turnover.

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