Page 13 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2022

The GFA Annual Conference brought together experts in workforce development to discuss how to best support the recruitment and retention of the future forestry workforce.
hour. In 2021, the state industry was able to do that same amount of work with around 4,500 employees and a nearly doubled rate of 6.5 tons per man hour.
While the total number of employees in the state forestry industry has steadily declined, the problem isn’t a matter of dissatisfaction or quitting the industry, but rather aging out, said Rebecca Hunt, a public service faculty member at the Carl Vinson Institute for Government at the University of Georgia.
“Historically, turnover in logging occupations has been relatively low at about 8%, but according to the Georgia Department of Labor projections, it’s expected to increase to over 15% in the next few years. When we look at the turnover data, we see that the older workforce has been a really stable source of labor with low turnover rates, but now they are aging out and
2+
Jobs
Available
Per Every Unemployed Person in the U.S.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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STEPHEN B. MORTON