Northeast Trends May 2025 – Concerns About Labor Differ Along With Market Reports
More hardwood lumber sources in the Northeast are quick to point out that labor is an ongoing issue than not, and hiring good people that want to work is hard to find.
In Pennsylvania, a hardwood lumber source stated that it is “slow” and “worse” than six months ago. She attributed this drop in the industry to “the uncertainty with everything going on with the tariffs.”
She said they handle Poplar, Soft and Hard Maple, Red Oak and are “heavily cutting White Oak. We like to cut 5/4 thickness, and we normally cut No. 1 and Better at the mill. We get a little bit of No. 2 Common and the 4/4 and No. 3 and Better. The uppers have slowed down and the No. 1 and No. 2 Common are moving well. I’m getting more inquiries for Red Oak right now, but we just don’t have it through the kilns. The White Oak uppers are starting to build up a bit.”
End users, distributors and flooring companies are their customer base. They also sell some 5/4 to “the guys that make stair treads.” Regarding exporting, ever since Chinese New Year, they “haven’t shipped anything out but there have been some inquiries. Nothing is flying off the shelves and no one is saying that it is very busy. No one is confident.”
When asked about her opinion on tariffs, she said that they are just “hunkering down and trying to survive.” She also expressed some concern about a potential recession.
On trucking, she noted that because of the “smaller volumes, I’m not having any problems with the lanes that I need to find trucking on right now.” As for labor, they are “working with the people that we have and not really hiring extra help.”
The market in Vermont, as reported by one lumber source, is “flat” caused by a “lack of demand.”
At the time of this writing, he said that “up until the last two weeks, the market was the same as six months ago and nobody has wanted to talk about lumber.”
While Hard Maple is their best seller, they are also offering Red Oak, Ash and Soft Maple in “all grades” and primarily cut 4/4.
Their customers, who are wholesalers and distribution yards, are “experiencing the same thing as I am with the market being flat,” he said. They don’t import but “do a little exporting.”
He believes that the tariffs “certainly won’t help for a while” and that “it’s going to be tough.”
Labor is a “little better than it used to be, but we’re not fully staffed yet. We’re still too tight on labor.” Despite this, he added that it seems as the “months have gone by, that it’s becoming easier to find employees.”
A lumber spokesman located at a “small sawmill” in Massachusetts, explained that they “just retail all our kiln-dried hardwood lumber and as far as the market goes, it couldn’t be better and is better than six months ago because our prices are so good.”
They cut “New England native hardwoods and whatever we can get our hands on, which could be anything from Oak to Cherry to Maple on our own land.” He mentioned that he recently sold “every stick of White Oak” he had. While they primarily work with Select and Better, they “take all the lower grades and put it into pallets.” We are “mostly a 4/4 mill,” he continued but have “some Oak and Cherry that are 8/4.”
His clientele is “mostly wood hobbyists who do work on their own, such as making their own cabinets and furniture. We also have some contractor clients but not too many. I’m just selling it to the end user. We don’t do any exporting. If the wood hobbyists come back for more, it’s going well for them.”
They are not “okay on labor; it’s the worst part about this whole place,” he remarked.
In Connecticut, a lumber source noted the market is “pretty good” and “consistent with years past.” The market for his products is the same as six months prior to this writing.
While they buy all hardwoods, the lumber representative commented that they “primarily source and purchase lower grades. We mill and manufacture our products with mixed hardwoods. Right now, we primarily manufacture and produce pallet lumber in 5/4 and supply pallet shops and pallet mills.”
In addition to pallet and bridge mat customers, they sell to railroad crosstie companies, they also sell to a “treating facility where they pressure treat the products. We also sell to steel companies for dunnage.” It is going well for his customers.
