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Bonnie Johnson
February 25, 2019
Newsletter Article
It’s a candidate’s job market and the agricultural industry is hiring. AgCareers.com’s latest Job Outlook Report was just released with a review of job and candidate trends from 2018 and an outlook for 2019.
2018 unemployment rates in the United States and Canada were the lowest they’ve been in a decade or more. Meanwhile, AgCareers.com experienced an increase in the number of job openings posted on the site; there were nearly 70,000 worldwide job openings on AgCareers.com in 2018.
Job Trends
On average, employers posted more than 5,800 North American jobs on AgCareers.com each month in 2018. In the United States, employers posted the largest number of jobs in the Midwest region, while in Canada the Prairies region (Manitoba & Saskatchewan) was the highest.
Job listings on AgCareers.com are categorized into one of 25 different industry types. When we look at all regions in North America, employers posted the highest number of positions in the “Chemical, Pesticide and Fertilizer” industry type, while “Equipment, Manufacturing & Technical” was second, followed by “Commodities & Trading.”
Employers also categorize job postings in one of 42 different career types. The “Operations” career type was the leading category for North America in 2018, followed by “Sales/Retail” and then, “Farm & Ranch Operations/Herdsperson/On Farm” careers.
The number of internship postings more than doubled from 2017 to 2018.
Candidate Trends
While candidates continue to search for sales and marketing positions on AgCareers.com, we’ve seen a surge in usage by students searching for internship and work experiences. When we combine keyword searches for “intern” and “internship,” this category takes over the most-searched keyword on the site. In addition, “summer” and “student” search popularity in Canada added to this strength.Candidates may also search by location, industry, career type and more.
Candidates can streamline their search and application process by setting up a free account, uploading resumes and cover letters, saving jobs and setting up job alerts via text or email. As of January 2019, there was nearly 15,000 candidate job alerts active.
Despite the job seekers’ market, candidates continue their outreach to agricultural employers with the increasing use of new tools available to them through AgCareers.com. Candidates added more than 6,000 new resumes to the AgCareers.com database in 2018, an increase of 11% over 2017.
When we examined demographic information of applicants on AgCareers.com, we found that 64% of people had a bachelor’s degree or higher and 63% had an ag-based degree. Sixty-six percent were currently or most recently in an ag occupation, while 13% were students. Those in non-ag occupations were typically in roles with transferable skills applicable to agriculture, such as sales, customer service or skilled trades. Illustrating the diverse array of applicants with experience, 35% had 10-plus years of experience.
For a thorough analysis of job and candidate trends, and data specific to the United States and Canada, download your copy of the full reports:
2018 U.S. Agribusiness Job Report
2018 Canadian Agribusiness Job Report
Start your search for a career in agriculture today at /search.cfm.
Review an in-depth assessment of the agricultural industry in our Careers in Agriculture digital e-book.
