PT17 · S2 · Q14 Between 1977 and 1987, the country

We don't care about where timber ranks among Ravonia's industries. We're just trying to figure why, in the same decade, the amount of wood withdrawn went up and the amount of wood-jobs went down.

The fact that number of acres of timberland fell would seem to mean that they were cutting down trees at a faster rate than new trees were growing back. If the amount of wood taken from forests increases by 10%, that could coincide with there being fewer total acres of timber left. But this answer does nothing to explain why 12,000 jobs were lost in timber, even while demand for wood products was increasing!

We don't really care whether domestic sales are increasing more than international sales, or vice versa. Either way, domestic and international sales of wood and wood products are increasing. That matches the background fact about the amount of wood being taken from forests going up by 10%. But that does nothing to explain (and even makes more surprising) the fact that so many people in the the timber industry lost their jobs, even while sales of wood and wood products are increasing across the board.

Because this answer is about overall unemployment, not specifically unemployment within the timber industry, it seems unlikely to be sharp enough to give us any clarity about what's going on here. If unemployment overall in the country is going up, that aligns with the fact that the timber industry saw a 15% decrease in employment. However, the decrease in the timber industry's employment force is still disproportionately large. The country overall didn't see employment decrease by 15%, just by 5%. So we would still need an "extra" explanation for why the timber industry is doing particularly bad when it comes to job loss. But more importantly is that this answer doesn't do anything to help us understand how/why we're extracting 10% more wood with 15% fewer wood workers.