Reemployment Programs for Dislocated Timber Workers: Lessons from Oregon

Abstract

Worker reemployment programs in the wood products industries are important policy responses to structural declines in employment levels. This article uses qualitative methods to present the perspectives of the participants in two distinctly different reemployment programs that served the same two-county area in western Oregon. Choices and Options was a 2-wk program that assisted displaced workers to prepare a reemployment plan; it was a traditional part of a continuum of reem ployment services. It served 586 dislocated timber workers between 1992 and 1994. Jobs in the Woods was a more innovative program that grew directly out of the Clinton administration's efforts to aid timber-dependent workers and communities. It was a multimonth training program to create ecosystem restoration specialists and served 20 people over the study period (1994 - 1996). Both programs produced a positive, but modest, effect on the displaced workers' satisfaction with their career transitions. The biggest hindrance to the impact of the Jobs in the Woods program is the challenge involved in starting a small business in a nascent industry.