Oregon’s Forest Sector Employment Totaled 61,000 in 2025
October 23, 2026Forest sector-related employment in Oregon totaled 61,000 in 2025, which accounted for 3% of Oregon’s workforce. Forest-related jobs covered by unemployment insurance paid relatively well, with an annual average wage of $76,800. That’s roughly a 4% difference from the $73,700 average for all covered jobs covered in 2025.
Categories of Forest Sector Employment
The majority of Oregon’s forest sector-related employment occurs in privately owned companies. About 52,000 forest sector jobs were found at private establishments covered by unemployment insurance in 2025. Another 3,100 private nonemployers operated in forest-related industries in 2023, the most recent year with available data. Federal, state, and local government accounted for 5,900 forest sector jobs statewide.
| Ownership | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Private | 51,979 |
| Federal | 4,383 |
| Nonemployers* | 3,121 |
| State | 1,180 |
| Local | 334 |
| Total | 60,997 |
Oregon’s forest sector falls into five major categories:
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Primary forest products;
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Secondary forest products;
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Forest management;
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Forestry support;
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and Forestry-dependent industries.
Primary forest products made up almost one-third (31%) of the forest sector total with 18,300 jobs and 580 nonemployers. Sawmills and wood preservation, softwood veneer and plywood manufacturing, and paper manufacturing accounted for 75% of all jobs found within the primary forest products category.
Forestry support accounted for another 21% of forest sector employment, with 10,700 jobs and 1,900 reported nonemployers. Of those, about 43% of jobs were in the logging industry. Support activities for forestry – which includes establishments engaged in forestry economics, forest firefighting, and estimating timber, among others – made up the largest share (48%) of employment in this category.
Similar to primary forest products and forestry support, Oregon’s 11,300 jobs and 440 nonemployers in secondary forest products were concentrated into a couple of industries: millwork (38%) and wood kitchen cabinets and countertops (30%).
Unlike other categories of forest sector employment where private employers dominated, 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 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. Most of these firms’ employment is already counted in other categories.
| Industry | Federal | State | Local | Private | Total, All Ownerships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forestry Management Total | 4,337 | 1,156 | 305 | 1,062 | 6,860 |
| Timber Tract Operations | 3,493 | 172 | 0 | 334 | 4,000 |
| Administration of Conservation Programs | 844 | 983 | 0 | 0 | 1,828 |
| Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices | 0 | 0 | 0 | 674 | 674 |
| Colleges, Universities, Community Colleges, and Professional Schools | 0 | 0 | 279 | 0 | 279 |
| Additional Private Certified Foresters and Consultants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 38 |
| County Government Foresters and Support Staff | 0 | 0 | 26 | 0 | 26 |
| Business Associations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 16 |
Wood product transportation jobs consisted of 6,200 jobs at business establishments (not already found in other categories) in Oregon with log or chip trucks with active registrations at the Oregon Department of Transportation. The 3,600 forest sector jobs in forestry-dependent industries were mostly represented by lumber, plywood, millwork, and wood panel merchant wholesalers. Other identified forest sector establishments included about 1,200 jobs in various industries ranging from biomass power generation, marine cargo handling, and consulting services, among others.
Importance of Forest Sector Jobs in Rural Oregon
Oregon’s 61,000 forest sector jobs made up roughly 3% of all employment in 2025. About 44,000 (72%) of all forest sector jobs were found at establishments in metropolitan counties, while 16,600 forest-related jobs (27%) belonged to businesses in rural counties. Another 390 jobs (1%) were with employers either classified in multiple areas or unclassified locations.
Although metros accounted for nearly three times as many of these jobs, forest sector employment made up 6% of all rural employment, compared with 2% of all metropolitan area employment. In Grant County, 16% of jobs were forest-related. The forest sector accounted for more than 10% of the total employment in Grant, Jefferson, Douglas, Lake, and Curry counties.
The forest sector also held relative importance to rural Oregon in terms of wages. In Washington and Morrow counties, forest sector wages paid less than the annual average for all jobs. However, forest sector jobs in rural areas paid as much as 58% more than the average for all jobs. That was the case in Lincoln County, where forest sector jobs paid an average of $96,500, compared with $53,100 for all jobs. Clatsop County was similar, with an average annual forest sector wage ($96,300) that was 56% above the all-job average ($54,100).
Even at the county level, our breakout likely understates the importance of forest jobs to rural Oregon. That’s because “metropolitan” includes all jobs throughout the 15 counties that are a part of the state’s eight metropolitan areas, even if the non-metropolitan balance of the county is rural in character.
More Forest Sector Information
This forest sector research was undertaken in partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry and Oregon Forest Resources Institute.