The U.S. ag and food industry not only provides daily necessities but millions of stable, enriching careers. AgCareers.com conducts an annual analysis of hiring trends to gain insights into career trends and candidate behavior within the sector. AgCareers.com recently released the new U.S. Agriculture and Food Job Report.
Career Search
When we examined North American jobs posted on AgCareers.com in the Animal Production – Swine industry sector, the most frequently posted were on-farm business management, and sales positions. The following chart shows the top five swine industry career types of jobs posted on AgCareers.com in 2023 (out of the 42 career types available on AgCareers.com).
Top Career Types in the Swine Industry
| 1. | Farm & Ranch Operations/Herdsperson/On Farm |
| 2. | Business & Strategic Management |
| 3. | Sales & Retail |
| 4. | Operations |
| 5. | Customer Support |
When job seekers visit the site, they can search by location, industry, career type and more. The most simple and popular search method is by keyword. When we examine U.S. user searches by keyword, the top search word was “remote.” Remote/work-from-home jobs in the swine industry were most likely to be posted in the business and strategic management career type.
By location, jobs in the U.S. swine industry were most plentiful in the Midwest, with Nebraska taking the lead, followed by Iowa.
Applicant Profile
Candidates actively seek careers in agriculture and use AgCareers.com as a valuable resource in their job search process to connect with potential employers. There was a 23% increase in applications processed in 2023. Over 8,000 candidates created new job seeker accounts on AgCareers.com last year. Candidates added over 3,700 unique resumes to the AgCareers.com database in 2023, an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year.
AgCareers.com draws applicant traffic from a range of occupations and educational backgrounds inside and outside of the agricultural industry; the largest segment of applicants had a bachelor’s degree (44%), while 14% had a college/associate diploma or certificate, and 18% had a high school diploma as their highest education.
Of those with a degree, 53% had an ag-based degree, with the most common being ag business management. Just over half of applicants were most recently in an ag occupation. For those not currently employed in ag, the highest percentage was in roles with applicable transferable skills, such as sales and marketing or customer service.
AgCareers.com is a valued resource with an established career history, as 47% of North American job seekers have more than five years of experience. The site is also a solid connector for students and young professionals; students comprise 11% of applications processed yearly.
Discover more hiring and candidate trends; download the job report under market research at AgCareers.com.
