Logging Workers: Salary, career path, job outlook, education and more
- Education Required
- A high school diploma is enough for most logging worker jobs. Some vocational or technical schools and community colleges offer associates degrees or certificates in forest technology. This additional education may help workers get a job. Programs may include field trips to observe or participate in logging activities.
- Training Required
- Many states have training programs for loggers. Although specific coursework may vary by state, programs usually include technical instruction or field training in a number of areas, including best management practices, environmental compliance, and reforestation.
- Job Outlook
-
The projected percent change in employment from 2016 to 2026: -7% (Decline)
(The average growth rate for all occupations is 7 percent.) - Median pay: How much do Logging Workers make?
- $37,590 Annual Salary
- $18.07 per hour
Logging workers harvest thousands of acres of forests each year. The timber they harvest provides the raw material for countless consumer and industrial products.
What do Logging Workers do?
Logging workers typically do the following:
- Cut down trees
- Fasten cables around logs to be dragged by tractors
- Operate machinery that drag logs to the landing or deck area
- Separate logs by species and type of wood and load them onto trucks
- Drive and maneuver fellerbuncher tree harvesters to shear trees and cut logs into desired lengths
- Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness
- Inspect equipment for safety, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks, before using the equipment
The cutting and logging of timber is done by a logging crew. The following are examples of types of logging workers:
Careers for Logging Workers
- Buckers
- Choke setters
- Contract cutters
- Contract skidders
- Cutter operators
- Delimber operators
- Fallers
- Feller buncher operators
- Feller operators
- Grapple operators
- Grapple skidder operators
- Loader operators
- Log buyers
- Log check scalers
- Log cutters
- Log graders
- Log graders and scalers
- Log haulers
- Log peelers
- Log processor operators
- Log ropers
- Log scalers
- Log sorters
- Log sorters, markers, movers, and chippers
- Log sorters, markers, movers, debarkers
- Log stacker operators
- Loggers
- Logging crane operators
- Logging equipment operators
- Logging shovel operators
- Logging tractor operators
- Lumber stacker operators
- Lumberjacks
- Pulpwood cutters
- Rigging slingers
- Rigging slingers and chasers
- Sawyers
- Scalers
- Skidder drivers
- Skidder operators
- Timber buyers
- Timber cutters
- Timber cutting and logging workers
- Timber estimators
- Timber fallers
- Timber fellers
- Timber hands
- Timber harvester operators
- Tree climbers
- Tree fellers
- Tree toppers
- Tree-shear operators
- Veneer graders