Job Security of Foresters?

[foresterwannabe]

what is the job security of foresters?

[beenthere]

Are you asking "Do they have a union"?  

 ;D

[WH_Conley]

beenthere, that's no security

[edsaws]

I would have to say as long as the trees growing there is some security. Unlike my job a machinist in the aerospace industry where job security is a joke. We went from roughly 5500 people 10 yrs ago to around 1000 now and their threatening more layoffs. These giant corparations are sending the work overseas to save a buck, profits are up in the double digits. Ceo's are getting 10- 15 million dollars bonuses with millions in stock options.Not to mention a lot of these are parts used on military aircraft as well. Kinda makes you wonder while people are giving the ultamite sacrafice to preserve our freedoms, corprate greed is just pissin it away and the goverment is letting it happen. Just my.02

[Ron Wenrich]

Security is no better and no worse than any other job.  A lot depends on who you work for.

If you land a job in the public sector, your security is pretty good, unless they get to massive cutbacks.  Usually they do hiring freezes first.

If you have a public job that is funded by grant money, then there isn't much security.  They can leave when no more money is available.

Jobs in industry are only as good as the company and your performance.  These jobs involve marketing yourself on a daily basis.  As long as you can do that, there isn't much of a problem.  Of course, you can become self employed (after some experience), then you depend on yourself for the job security.

[Phorester]

Ron hit it on the head.  Government jobs seem the most secure.  But as he also said I'd be leery about a government position that's funded by a grant. For someone that goes the gvernment route, you need to find out how your salary is funded. Grant money can disappear very fast at the whim of a legislator. They don't care about what effect it has on us employees.   It's happened more than once in my Agency.

Personally I think the forestry profession itself is a pretty safe one to be in.  With the continued dependance of humans on wood products to survive on this planet, with more world population every year, with shrinking forests, I think it's pretty secure.  

But I think you will also need to keep on top of changes in this profession more in the future than the past.  As time goes on, with changing technologies, changing philosophies on forest preservation vs. use,  you may be changing jobs within the forestry profession more than us oldtimers had to.

[foresterwannabe]

ok thanks a lot