AgCareers.com analyzes candidate and job posting trends in the agricultural industry for the annual Job Outlook Report. The newest edition is available now, with encouraging data. Despite the challenging agricultural economic climate, there were still nearly 60,000 jobs openings posted on AgCareers.com in 2016. Data also shows increased interest in agricultural careers, as AgCareers.com experienced more visits, page views and candidate applications in 2016.

Job Trends

Candidate Trends

There is increased interest among candidates to pursue careers in agriculture and use AgCareers.com in the job search process. Almost 9,000 new resumes were added to the AgCareers.com database in 2016.

AgCareers.com processed more than 100,000 applications through the site in 2016, an increase of 15% from 2015.

Forty-three percent of applicants had a bachelor’s degree, while 12% had a college or associate’s degree and 5% had a skilled trade or apprenticeship certificate.

AgCareers.com asked applicants for their education discipline or major. The largest group had an ag-based degree (49%) while 36% had a non-ag degree.

Nearly half of applicants were currently or most recently in an ag occupation, while just over 10% 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.

More than half (55%) of applicants were young professionals with less than five years of experience. However, illustrating the diverse array of applicants with experience, 33% had 10-plus years of experience.

Download your free copy of the full 2016 AgCareers.com U.S. Agribusiness Job Report here.  A separate Canadian edition is also available.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Penton Agriculture.