Farm labour shortage with “thousands of jobs” going begging

Farmers are struggling to fill positions as the shortage of workers hits new heights. Discover where the biggest vacancies are.

Thousands of vacancies and a shortage of suitable candidates are creating a perfect storm for farm employment.

And farmers looking for staff are being warned they may need to brush up on their own resumes as potential employees pick and choose from a huge pool of jobs.

Finding farm labour has become so difficult there are now waiting lists for agricultural graduates, while employment agencies are knocking back employers looking to fill roles.

The industry has been warning of looming labour shortages but little has been done according to National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson, who said the organisation had been “calling for workforce solutions for years”.

“Growing global populations means the demand for food and fibre is only going to increase,” Ms Simson said. “Naturally, we need people to grow food and fibre.”

Sheep shearing is among the ag industries experiencing a dire shortage of workers at the moment. Picture: Tara Croser.

Ms Simson said regional unemployment had been tracking lower than metropolitan levels since the pandemic, when it was usually the reverse.

Regional unemployment in Victoria is one of the lowest in the nation at 3.4 per cent - lower than the state and national figure of 3.5 per cent.

The NFF puts the current labour shortage at 172,000 workers across the food supply chain.

Drover Ag managing director John Boote said they had about 60 jobs on their books at the one time but “we could have over 200 if we accepted each inquiry from new clients”.

“For the past two years, we have averaged 30 new client inquiries weekly, with us converting only about 40-50 per cent to our clients,” Mr Boote said.

Mr Boote said his company had been told of long waiting lists for graduates of universities and agricultural colleges.

“One of these universities told me that there were only about 20 graduates this year with well over 800 inquiries received from interested farmers and agricultural businesses,” Mr Boote said.

He said there were about 90,000 agricultural businesses in Australia, and in the five years to 2021, the staff requirement of these businesses increased from 230,000 to 325,000.

This increase in demand of 100,000 employees had been driven by a number of factors including scaling up after droughts, and more off-farm money going into properties which then required staff.

Director of recruitment firm Drover Ag, John Boote.

“Drover Ag has dealt with over 20 new clients in the past six months who are new to agriculture and have invested in large operations, mostly buying farms or aggregations from farming families,” Mr Boote said.

Fellow recruiter Lucas Group has seen a big jump in “open roles”, with jobs listed lifting 150 per cent since 2018.

Lucas Group general manager Brodie McHugh said more applicants were coming forward in some cases for some positions, but this did not mean there were more suitable candidates.

“We recently had over 160 applications for a station hand role, but probably more than 140 of them either didn’t have agricultural experience or working rights in Australia,” Mr McHugh said.

He said job seekers in the agricultural field “are pretty switched on and know they’re a commodity”.

“They often ask for details about potential employers, like company background, culture, and values,” Mr McHugh said.

Marcus Oldham College principal Andrew Baker said demand for graduates had been high for a number of years.

The college just held its second careers day and was forced to cap the number of businesses wanting to attend due to demand.

“There is the belief if we had more graduating students ... this could have been bigger,” Mr Baker said.

National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson says the industry has been calling for a sustainable solution to labour shortages for years. Picture: John Elliott

While Marcus Oldham does not measure lift in demand for its graduates, Mr Baker said there was more interest from potential employers this year from agricultural recruitment companies.

Job seeker Hamish Chugg is about to start a position on a cattle property in central Victoria and said he had been able to bide his time to get the position he wanted.

“I wanted to be able to find the right one so I did my homework,” Mr Chugg said.

“I was able to find casual work to keep things ticking along until I found the right job and there is plenty of contractor work around in agriculture too.”

Mr Chugg said it was now possible to wait for good opportunities.

“For me, it was about finding someone that was principled and followed best practice, had a good standard of work and it’s not all about the money.”

Ms Simson said other barriers, such a recommendation from the Migration Review to limit backpackers to a one-year cultural exchange with no on-farm requirement, would see the workforce continue to shrink.

“Australian farm businesses need a dedicated visa for agriculture and we need the government to also look beyond migration solutions at ways to make agriculture the industry of choice for people of all skill levels and backgrounds,” she said.