What is the future of the forestry worker?
From everything I've heard, we will have a huge shortage of forestry workers in BC in the coming years. How did this come about?
Firstly, many people currently working in forestry are nearing retirement. Those baby boomers are starting to hit the retirement age, and there are lots of them! As they leave the workforce, they will create many openings. This is also happening in other industries and will be a Canada-wide problem.
In the early 2000's, the forest industry entered one of it's cyclical downturns. There were too many workers and not enough work. Many people exited the industry and found jobs in other areas of the economy. The future outlook was bad. Young people entering college and university didn't see forestry as a viable career. Who wants to graduate and not find work, when there are so many other options?
Declining enrollment in forestry programs has now led to many educational institutions cancelling or cutting back their forestry faculties.
So now we are left in the position of a huge retirement wave coming, along with lesser capabilities of producing the qualified, educated forestry workers the industry will need. Right now it seems that we are just at the beginnning of this scenario, and already I'm seeing and hearing about companies that can't find extra workers. I believe the worst is still to come.
A similar case can be made for the workers who actually go out and build roads, cut trees, and haul wood. Who will replace them when they enter their well-deserved retirement years? Interesting, on one road building crew last year I met one individual who was well into his later 60's, if not 70's, but he is still there because he loves the forestry life!
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