By Bonnie Johnson, AgCareers.com
The last couple of years have affected employment in agriculture and food, changing where, how and the way we work and conduct business. AgCareers.com annually reviews trends in jobs, candidates, and site activity in our annual AgCareers.com Agricultural Job Report. This review of trends helps the industry identify career trends and move forward.
The Rise in Remote Work
In direct response to the pandemic’s influence on work-from-home availability, needs and expectations, there was significant interest in remote positions in 2021 and onward. There were nearly 6,000 candidate searches for the keyword “remote” on AgCareers.com, one of the most popular search terms on the site.
In 2020, AgCareers.com added a new work environment option for employers to specify in their job postings—remote/work-from-home. AgCareers.com added this selection because of employers’ increased offerings of remote opportunities during COVID, and increased demand by job seekers to find these opportunities.
The number of positions posted on AgCareers.com in the remote/work-from-home category nearly tripled from 2020 to 2021. Not all industries nor careers lend themselves to remote work, especially when we consider production and processing. However, there are some roles that can and were accomplished from home.
Remote positions were most common in the sales/retail and business development career types. Looking at industry sectors within agriculture, remote positions were most frequently posted in chemical, pesticide and fertilizer, equipment, manufacturing and technical, and animal health industry types.
Most Common Remote/Work-from-Home Jobs on AgCareers.com | |
Top Industry Types | Top Career Types |
Chemical, Pesticide & Fertilizer | Sales/Retail |
Equipment, Manufacturing & Technical | Business Development/Strategic Management |
Animal Health | Agronomist |
Precision Ag & Technology | Marketing & Branding |
Communications, Promotion, & Public Relations | Communications & Public Relations |
Ag Careers
Sales/retail careers are traditionally the most common career type posted on AgCareers.com, followed by farm and ranch operations/herdsperson/on-farm careers.
Besides overall jobs posted, we also examined trending career types of jobs experiencing the highest percent increase in the past year. Risk management/security positions increased by over 400% in 2021. Customer support, skilled and technical trades, communications and public relations, and custom applicator/pest control careers increased over 200%. Engineering and processing career types also experienced strong growth.
Over one-third of jobs posted on AgCareers.com did not list a specific education requirement for applicants. For jobs that specified an education minimum, the largest segment was a bachelor’s degree, followed by a high school diploma.
The AgCareers.com Agricultural Job Report also examines applicant trends by education, experience, occupation, and location, plus includes more statistics on job postings. Download a copy of the full report.
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