Report: Skilled Ag Labor Workforce Aging, Needs New Blood
That’s one of the conclusions reached in a recently published study of employment trends that are affecting skilled agricultural workers. The purpose of the study, titled “Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Skilled Labor Outlook Report,” is to “gauge the awareness, availability and perceptions of careers within the skilled labor profession in agribusiness.”
The report was put together by AgCareers.com, an online agricultural job board, and AgrowKnowledge, a resource center focused on strengthening math, science and technology skills for college agriculture students.
The report’s results were compiled from surveys taken between Dec. 1, 2008, and Jan. 31, 2009. Thirty-one agribusiness employers, 49 faculty members at educational (mostly two-year) institutions that offer agricultural programs and 184 skilled laborers filled out the surveys.
The report defined “skilled labor” as “workers who have had long periods of formal training and are employed in occupations involving the exercise of independent judgment and a high degree of manual skill. Skilled professional workers may have special knowledge, certifications or qualifications.”
Many skilled laborers, such as electricians, mechanics, millwrights, technicians, drivers and welders, require the kind of two-year degree or certificate that can be earned at a community college, according to the report.
The report concludes that the skilled labor workforce is aging and must be replaced in the coming years. Forty-three percent of responding agribusiness employers expected up to 5 percent of their skilled laborers to retire within the next two years. More than half of the employers considered the majority of their employees “long-time degree holders,” or individuals who have been in the profession for an extended time.
New blood is on the way, however. Participating faculty members reported that the majority of their pupils are full-time students, 82 percent of them between the ages of 18 and 25. That offers a “glimmer of hope that there are students training to enter the workforce in a skilled labor profession,” according to the report.
The faculty members said enrollment in their programs was on the increase, and they were confident that their graduates had adequate career opportunities both locally and nationally – and that those opportunities would grow in the next five years. The two sectors considered to have the most potential for students were agricultural engineering/technology and agricultural business, according to the report.
The skilled professionals were asked how they learned about their current positions. They listed their top three methods: family/friends/peers, newspapers and job boards.
Since newspapers are a more traditional method of recruiting, those results confirm that the majority of skilled laborers are “long-time degree holders” and part of an aging workforce. As technology becomes more prevalent, more electronic recruiting methods – such as online job boards – are emerging, according to the report.
Most of the faculty respondents said students are learning about career opportunities through word-of-mouth, career advisers and friends and family. They’d like to see more campus visits from employers and more direct engagement with students. More than half of the skilled laborers polled also thought employers should do more recruiting at community colleges and universities, according to the report.
Building relationships with local institutions is important for other reasons, too.
“With over half of employers noting that 76 percent to 100 percent of their skilled labor workforce lives within a 30-mile radius, developing strong relationships with local high schools, community colleges and within their own workforce will be critical to building a pipeline of local talent,” according to the report.
All responding employers said offering extra training was a good way to keep their employees around, while most employees said being offered compensation for such training was a good way to keep them around, according to the report.
The report concluded that everyone in the industry – employers, employees, teachers – has to work together to keep agriculture in the forefront of the minds of future job seekers.