Hardwood Floors April/May 2019

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

THE HARDWOOD INDUSTRY: ECONOMIC ENGINE OF THE U.S.

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in annual income. Related industries, including transportation retail, forest owners, and logging, support more than 1.4 million jobs and add $241 billion to the economy. For every $1 million in output of hardwood products, 5.3 jobs are created. American hardwoods are also a valuable export commodity. In 2017, U.S. hardwood producers shipped $4.04 billionworth of U.S. products to global markets and supported over 200,000 jobs. e study also examined individual sectors within the overall hardwood industry, including wood ooring. Numbers for the ooring sector are

Last year, 12 member associations of the Hardwood Federation, including the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), came together in a coordinated e ort to study the impacts of the hardwood industry on the U.S. economy. e results were staggering. According to the nal report, the hardwood industry helps to employ nearly 21 million people and contributes $394 billion to the U.S. economy. Hardwood producers and manufacturers, including sawmills, lumberyards, ooring companies, kitchen cabinet manufacturers, and railway ties, directly support nearly 750,000 jobs, generating $38 billion

For those of us who work in the hardwood industry, it is no secret that thousands of people are employed by our mills, yards, and manufacturing facilities, and that the economic impact of this business on local communities is tremendous. However, just how important the industry is economically has never really been known…until now.

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