Skip to main content
Contact Us

Information on employment in primary wood processing is obtained annually via the sources used to collect data on UK-grown timber (presented in Chapter 2).

There was estimated to be a total of 7.5 thousand full time equivalent staff employed by primary wood processors in the UK in 2015 (Table 7.2), a 1% decrease from the total for 2014.

Around three fifths (58%) of the total employment in 2015 worked in sawmills and over one quarter (28%) worked in wood-based panel mills.

Table 7.2 Employment in primary wood processing, 2011-2015
Year Sawmills Pulp & paper Wood-based
panels
Fencing Total
full-time equivalents
2011 4 090 725 2 376 397 7 588
2012 4 131 716 2 076 370 7 293
2013 4 131 716 2 111 381 7 340
2014 4 380 703 2 091 407 7 581
2015 4 341 702 2 100 384 7 527

Source: industry surveys, industry associations.

Notes:

1. Some businesses operate sawmills and round fencing mills. Employment for such businesses may be recorded under sawmills, round fencing manufacturers or shared between the two categories.

Tools & Resources
In this section
Tools & Resources