Maine forest industry group rolls out strategies to grow workforce
Courtesy / Sutherland Weston
Thousands of incoming workers will be needed over the next 15 years to replenish the forest industry’s upcoming retirement cliff. Here, a logger works in the Maine woods.
A coalition of Maine forest industry members has mapped out new strategies to grow the sector's workforce, including targeting potential employees from high schools and out of state, improving marketing, and using the existing workforce to expand learning opportunities.
The strategies are part of a report issued this week by Forest Opportunity Roadmap/Maine, or FOR/Maine, which was formed in 2018.
“I’m not sure everyone fully appreciates the career opportunities that exist in the forest products industry and how varied those opportunities are,” Steve Schley, chair of the FOR/Maine steering committee, said in a news release. “There are jobs that span many skill sets and interests, and those opportunities continue to evolve with research, development, and innovation.”
The report said that careers in the forest products sector are sometimes overlooked, in part because of negative news such as mill closures. The report recommends that the industry help make the public aware of the technological advances and innovations taking place within the industry in Maine.
“The innovation, technological advances, and new ways of doing business will all continue with new people joining this workforce,” said Schley.
FOR/Maine is a cross-sector collaboration between industry, communities, government, education and nonprofits, with a focus on Maine’s role in the global forest economy. The coalition was created with support from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Maine Timberlands Charitable Trust, and Maine Technology Institute.
The workforce development report was prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Maine.
Challenges facing the industry include an aging workforce and finding recruits to replace retirees.
The strategy is a significant component of FOR/Maine’s plan to drive growth in the forest products industry to reach $12 billion in economic output by the year 2025, noted Schley.
The timber industry, without the disruption of the pandemic, generates revenue of $8.5 billion.
“A well equipped workforce is the only way we can achieve our goals for growing this sector,” said Schley. Aging workforce statistics are eye-opening. In the forest products harvesting sector, 40% of workers are age 55-plus, considered at or near retirement. The same is true with those working in pulp and paper manufacturing.
For those working in forest products transportation, 37% are at or near retirement age, as are 26% in wood products manufacturing.
According to the report’s projections, from 4,770 to 5,200 incoming workers will be needed over the next 15 years to replace retiring workers. That represents around 30% of the current workforce.
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