Salmon Job Losses

I have posted a brief report estimating the employment impacts of the salmon fishery closure here. This excerpt summarizes the result

Recently, some misleading claims of employment loss have been made by supporters of salmon fishing interests citing a report from the consulting firm Southwick Associates. Several Congressional representatives recently used this estimate of 23,000 lost Salmon fishing jobs in a recent letter, and the claim has been repeated several times in the media. This paper discusses the errors in the most recent salmon jobs claims, and makes alternative estimates. We estimate the salmon fishery closures resulted in the loss of 1,823 jobs and $118.4 million in income compared to the level of the salmon fishery in 2004 and 2005.4

I have been very critical of exagerrated agricultural job loss estimates from Delta pumping restrictions. Now that salmon advocates are employing similar tactics, it is appropriate to subject their claims to the same level of scrutiny.