Agriculture jobs forecast strong despite coronavirus pandemic
Despite the chaos to the economy caused by COVID-19, there is still plenty of demand for farming-related jobs. Here’s why the industry is so bullish.
FROM panic buying to international tariffs, the pandemic has hit Australia’s agriculture industry from all sides.
Despite the chaos, agriculture employment prospects remain strong according to the latest jobs growth data.
The number of farming-related job ads posted on Seek hit an eight-year high in August, up 17.7 per cent on the same month last year and a massive 300 per cent up on 2012, showing the sector is tracking for a major bounce-back after recruitment ads fell by 24 per cent over April and May.
Agricultural Appointments managing director Dr Ray Johnson described the gains as “strong and maintained”, signalling COVID-19 had not permanently dented demand for agricultural professionals including farm managers, agronomists, sales agents and marketing executives.
“The demand, you could only describe it as vibrant at the moment,” Dr Johnson said, explaining businesses that had put a hold on filling vacancies in April and May crept back into the market after several weeks, with favourable seasonal conditions contributing to confidence.
“There is really no one specific area; it is a pretty normal pattern across the board at the moment,” he said. “We see demand for finance, farm managers, accountants, agronomy and technical service people. Plus, quite a few CEO and general-management roles coming through.”
He said the hiring trends were much better than he predicted back in March, when international lockdowns in Asia and Europe and supply-chain disruption sent shivers through global agribusiness networks.
“I was thinking there would be major ramifications. But that demand came back very quickly,” Dr Johnson said.
Data from national agriculture recruitment agency Rimfire Resources also paints a rosy picture.
Rimfire director Nigel Crawley said the company’s Rural Jobs Index showed recruitment ads from January to August were down just 2.5 per cent on the same period in 2019.
He said online jobs ads for June-August were up 13 per cent on 2019, following a pandemic-induced drop in March-May, when advertisements were down 18.4 per cent on the previous year.
Month on month, June saw an increase of 33.2 per cent, July numbers grew by 4.1 per cent; and August saw a further increase of 11.1 per cent.
“In the past three months we are seeing the areas of biggest growth have been in commodity trading, which has almost tripled,” Mr Crawley said.
“That’s on the back of the east coast having a decent season. And distribution has been steadily growing as one of the sectors that, unusually, had a low number of vacancies last year due to drought on the east coast.”
He said the dairy sector was experiencing the biggest decrease in job availability, with ads down 86.7 per cent on the previous year.
Rimfire’s recent Agribusiness HR Review report found more than 65 per cent of agriculture businesses forecast an increase or no change to their annual revenue this year.
“This figure is in stark opposition to the general market, in which two thirds of businesses indicated revenue had decreased, according to the ABS,” Mr Crawley said.
Mr Crawley and Dr Johnson agreed the strong winter cropping season would drive employment and stimulate regional economies, but border restrictions might hinder productivity and deter people from accepting certain roles.
“Candidate mobility is a bit of an issue,” Dr Johnson said. “We have had a number of candidates who we were approaching for roles interstate, and they said it was too hard at the moment, and if we were talking about Melbourne, too dangerous.”
Mr Crawley predicted jobs growth would continue long term.
“There is still a shortage of talent right across the industry,” he said. “Even though COVID has provided its challenges, agribusiness at all levels has put plans in place to overcome that.”
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