Lumberjack Data

“I didn’t want to be a barber, anyway. I wanted to be a lumberjack. Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! The giant redwood! The larch! The fir! The mighty Scots Pine! The smell of fresh-cut timber! The crash of mighty trees! With my best girly by side, we’d sing!

We often get e-mails here at PolicyMap from lumberjacks, asking for more lumberjack-related datasets. “I’m considering a career change, and I want to become a lumberjack. Where should I move to?” Well, with our new data on industry-specific wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, PolicyMap can provide the answer: Seattle. The data can be found in the “Jobs & Economy” tab, in the long section beneath “Jobs & Wages – Industry Concentrations”. Within each industry’s submenu, there is data on both the number of jobs for that industry and average wages for those jobs.

The top lumberjack wages in 2010 were in King County, Washington, where lumberjacks (and those in the lumberjack industry) earned on average a yearly wage of $214,287. Of course, that probably includes lumberjack presidents and CEOs. Looking at data more broadly, lumberjacks in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA earned $99,057. Other top-paying lumberjack areas were also in the Pacific Northwest, around Longview, WA, Salem, OR, and Lewiston, ID.

Top 10 CBSAs by average annual wage in the forestry and logging industry in 2010:

• 1. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area $99,057
• 2. Longview, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area $67,001
• 3. Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area $57,002
• 4. Lewiston, ID-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area $54,833
• 5. Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area $53,632
• 6. Olympia, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area $51,928
• 7. Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area $49,985
• 8. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area $48,579
• 9. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area $47,780
• 10. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area $47,694

Let’s say you’re not a lumberjack, but actually a barber. Barbers are in the industry category “Personal and Laundry Services” in the “Other Services (except Public Administration)” section. If you’re a barber living in King County, WA, and you have a suitably plaid flannel wardrobe, you might want to consider a career change, as the average wage for those in personal and laundry services is $28,429. Alternatively, you could consider moving to Berrien County, Georgia, where average wages are $58,154.