Lack of Lumber Industry Workers in Maine Has the Potential to Cause Lumber Prices to Increase

According to Scripts News (5-18-23), a recently released study by the University of Maine found that the state’s logging industry, a major producer of timber and forest products, supported fewer jobs and generated less economic output and labor income in 2021 than in the five previous years. The study shows that Maine itself generated $582 million in economic output compared to $610 million in 2017. As a result, the industry is looking for new avenues for its products.

The study notes that since the pandemic, demand for lumber has gone down and so have the prices. This in turn is causing many forest products industry employees to leave the industry in search of different jobs and has the potential of having a major impact on the consumer when it comes to building or repairing homes.

The shortage of labor in Maine applies not only to those in the timber harvesting industry, but also to production where mills are short on available labor available to perform various functions from unloading the logs all the way through packaging and shipping finished product, Scripts News reported.