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Forest sector workforce (6.5)
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| Figure 6.5a. Employed persons in the forest sector, 1980–2010.
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Figure 6.5b. Proportion of forest sector (inlc. furniture industry)
of employed persons by regioanl units of the Finnish Forestry Centre, 2010.
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The number of people employed in the forest sector is an indication
of the social impacts and benefits of forestry and forest
industry. The employment contribution of the forest sector is an
important indicator, especially in assessing economic and social
development in rural areas.
In 2010, there were 69,000 people employed in the forest sector.
Of this number, 22,000 were in forestry – 14,000 as salaried
employees and 8,000 as entrepreneurs. In addition to them, a
considerable number of forest owners worked in their forests,
mainly in silvicultural work. The number of people employed in
the wood-products industry was 27,000 and in pulp and paper
industry 20,000. The forest sector employed less than 3% of all
people employed in Finland.
As a result of the mechanisation of harvesting and automation
of the production processes of the forest industry as well as outsourcing,
the number of people employed in the forest sector has
decreased considerably since the early 1980s, when the sector
still employed about 8% of the national workforce. The global
economic recession caused especially the number of people employed
in the pulp and paper industry to collapse in 2008–2009.
In 2010, the average unemployment rate was 9.0% in the forest
sector – 7.9% in forestry and 9.6% in the forest industry. The
overall unemployment rate at that time was 8.4%.
In 2010, there were 13,000 women employed in the forest sector
(19% of the employed people in the sector), of whom 3,000
worked in forestry, 5,000 in the wood-products industry, and
5,000 in the pulp and paper industry. Women account for a
high percentage of the workforce in Finland by international
standards – 49% of all employed people in all sectors of the
economy. However, the forest sector remains clearly a male-dominated
sector.
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