Reemployment programs for dislocated timber workers: Lessons from Oregon

Worker reemployment programs in the wood products industries are important policy responses to structural declines in employment levels. This article uses qualitative methods to present the perspectives of the participants in two distinctly different reemployment programs that served the same two-co unty area in western Oregon. Choices and Options was a 2-wk program that as sisted displaced workers to prepare a reemployment plan; it was a tradition al part of a continuum of reemployment services. It served 586 dislocated t imber workers between 1992 and 1994. Jobs in the Woods was a more innovativ e program that grew directly out of the Clinton administration's efforts to aid timber-dependent workers and communities. It was a multimonth training program to create ecosystem restoration specialists and served 20 people o ver the study period (1994-1996). Both programs produced a positive, but mo dest, effect on the displaced workers' satisfaction with their career trans itions. The biggest hindrance to the impact of the Jobs in the Woods progra m is the challenge involved in starting a small business in a nascent indus try.