- North Carolina has about 18.1 million acres of timberland covering about 58 percent of the state’s total land area.
- In 2018, the forest sector in North Carolina—including forestry and logging operations, sawmills, furniture mills, and pulp and paper industries—directly contributed $20.8 billion in industry output, which was just about 2 percent of the statewide economic output. The forest sector employed about 75,000 people with a payroll of $4.2 billion and a value added (gross state product) of $6.3 billion.
- Including direct, indirect, and induced effects, the forest sector in North Carolina had a total contribution of $33.6 billion in industry output to the North Carolina economy, supporting more than 150,400 full-time and part-time jobs with a payroll of about $8.3 billion.
- Compared to 2017, total economic output in 2018 was up 2.6 percent, but total employment dropped slightly less than 0.4 percent. While forestry operations gained about 400 jobs, primary solid wood mills and paper and paperboard mills lost about 5,300 jobs collectively.
- The forest sector was the top employer among manufacturing sectors in the state.
- Every job created in the forest sector resulted in another 1.01 jobs in North Carolina.
- On average, every dollar generated in the forest sector contributed an additional 61 cents to the rest of the North Carolina economy.
- The forest sector in North Carolina directly generated about $274.2 million in state and local taxes and $850.4 million in federal taxes. Compared to 2017, both state and local taxes and federal taxes increased by 6.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
- Primary solid wood mills directly generated about $35.7 million in state and local taxes and more than $100 million in federal taxes. Compared to 2017, both state and local taxes and federal taxes from the primary solid wood industry decreased by 12 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
- International exports from the North Carolina forest sector totaled about $1.44 billion.
| Employment2 (jobs) |
Labor Income3 (million $) |
Gross State Product4 (million $) |
Industry Output5 (million $) |
|||
|
Direct Contribution6 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
Forestry operations |
704 |
37.61 | 41.43 | 54.30 | ||
|
Logging |
6,171 | 258.16 | 272.02 | 478.76 | ||
|
Primary solid wood mills7 |
8,267 |
473.27 | 918.09 | 2,885.53 | ||
|
Secondary solid wood mills8 |
42,806 |
2,092.32 | 2,845.49 | 8,070.47 | ||
|
Primary paper and paperboard mills |
3,977 | 411.50 | 777.37 | 3,106.87 | ||
|
Secondary paper and paperboard mills |
13,051 | 949.44 | 1,471.89 | 6,236.39 | ||
|
Total |
74,975 | 4,222.31 | 6,326.28 | 20,832.33 | ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Total Contribution9 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
Forestry operations |
926 |
47.89 |
60.12 | 87.07 | ||
|
Logging |
8,271 | 360.74 | 452.55 | 798.43 | ||
|
Primary solid wood mills |
17,395 | 967.26 | 1,761.95 | 4,462.81 | ||
|
Secondary solid wood mills |
77,332 | 3,951.29 | 5,911.68 | 13,775.83 | ||
|
Primary paper and paperboard mills |
14,664 | 1,004.01 | 1,797.00 | 5,030.23 | ||
|
Secondary paper and paperboard mills |
31,829 | 1,948.47 | 3,184.15 | 9,444.15 | ||
|
Total |
150,417 | 8,280 | 13,167 | 33,599 | ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Change in Total Contribution from 2017 |
||||||
|
Forestry operations |
77.1% |
96.6% | 10.0% | 22.5% | ||
|
Logging |
1.9% | -0.8% | -1.2% | 12.4% | ||
|
Primary solid wood mills |
-10.2% | -9.5% | 3.1% | -3.7% | ||
|
Secondary solid wood mills |
5.7% | 8.7% | 10.5% | 7.6% | ||
|
Primary paper and paperboard mills |
-11.1% | -7.1% | -4.1% | -3.4% | ||
|
Secondary paper and paperboard mills |
-4.5% | -2.9% | -3.5% | 1.2% | ||
|
Total |
-0.4% | 1.2% | 3.3% | 2.6% | ||
|
1 Economic contribution numbers, based on multi-industry contribution analysis, are reported in 2018 dollars. The method of internal adjustments to the IMPLAN software (IMPLAN 2018) was used. More details about the contribution analysis method can be found at https://bit.ly/2LajYIL. IMPLAN sectors included 15, 16, 19 (partial), 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 365, 366, 367, 370, 371, and 373. |
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Publication date: May 27, 2020
AG-844
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