SUSTAINABILITY 11 Efficiency factor of forestry and wood In Austria, about 280,000 people earn their livelihood in the forestry and wood industry, whether directly in the forest, in sawmills or in the further wood-processing industry. This number does not even include the employees working in the industries that are merely indirectly related to the wood industry such as the timber and building material trade. A similar pattern is found in Germany with 648,000 employees alone in the wood industry. When adding up the employees of the entire cluster consisting of forestry and wood industry, the number even exceeds the number of employees in the metal and electronics industry (see Figure 8). The wood industry in Austria has approx. 1,500 businesses, of which the large majority, notably 1,200, are sawmills. The most important branches – as far as the production output is concerned – are the sawmill segment, furniture industry, construction, derived timber products segment and – how could it be different in Austria – the ski industry. Occupations and personnel requirements have strongly evolved in recent years in consequence of various technical innovations, increasing automation and progressing digitalisation. There is a correspondingly large variety of professional opportunities that are represented in the industry: the bandwidth ranges from lumberjacks and wood engineers to industrial clerks and IT specialist and even includes controllers, lawyers and marketing experts. Figure 8 – Employees in the cluster of forestry & wood in Germany. Cluster of forestry & wood Thousands of employees Mechanical & plant engineering 978 841 742 648 434 Forestry Printing & publishing Timber industry 1.107 Electrical engineering & electronics industry Automotive industry Timber industry Chemicals & pharmaceuticals industry 800 900 1.000 1.100 1.200 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 Cluster Forst & Holz Tausend Beschäftige Manschinen- & Anlagenbau 978 841 742 648 434 Forstwirtschaft Druckerei & Verlage Holzwirtschaft 1.107 Elektrotechnik- & Elektronikindustrie Automobilindustrie Holzwirtschaft Chemie- & Pharmaindustrie 800 900 1.000 1.100 1.200 700 600 500 400 300 200 100
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