BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 28, 2021
Maine’s Forest Opportunity Roadmap, or FOR/Maine, announced the release of its Workforce Development Strategy for the Forest Products Industry. The report, prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Maine, offers projections for the number of workers it would take to replace the aging workforce once they do retire, and those labor replacement demands for the entire sector range from 4,770 to 5,200 over the next 15 years. This represents around 30 percent of the current workforce size. The report strongly recommends that the industry help to make the public aware of the many technological advances and innovations taking place within the forest products industry in Maine.