AUSTRALIAN agriculture is facing a labour shortage of at least 96,000 full-time workers and 10,000 part-time workers, new research shows.
And future projections of labour supply and demand for the sector show no signs of this shortage being reduced over the next decade unless action is taken on a number of fronts.
These are the key findings in a new study, ‘Towards a Better Understanding of Current and Future Human Resource Needs of Australian Agriculture’, released today by the Australian Farm Institute.
The study concluded that if the sector continues on a business-as-usual course over the next decade, the current shortage of available labour will continue to worsen, driving up labour costs and limiting future growth in the sector.
Competing demand for regional labour supplies from the mining sector, and the generally poor perceptions of careers in agriculture are major negative factors reducing the number of new entrants seeking careers in the sector, it found.
Further factors are the lack of defined career paths, and indifferent attitude employers in the sector seem to have towards helping employees undertake additional education or training.
The research, jointly funded by Horticulture Australia Limited, AgriFood Skills Australia and the AFI, involved a detailed examination of labour demand and supply statistics for the agriculture sector, an industry survey, and the development of future labour and demand supply scenarios over the next decade.
“Given the reliance that many agricultural businesses now have on technology and complex management systems, there is an obvious need for a better educated and trained workforce, which will also help the sector to maintain productivity growth in the future,” AFI executive director Mick Keogh said.
“The horticulture sector also has a growing need for seasonal workers during harvest periods, but available statistics do not identify this adequately."
The research concluded that one way to start to solve seasonal worker shortfalls was to collect better data about the location and the extent of seasonal labour shortages, Mr Keogh said. "This would enable better-targeted responses to be developed in a timely manner."
A key issue that emerged from the research was the poor quality of statistics available to the industry which would help in future workforce planning, Mr Keogh said.
“Official employment statistics for the sector use categorisations that do not meet the needs of the sector, making it difficult to properly understand labour supply and demand trends.
"In addition, official statistics do not adequately reflect seasonal labour supply and demand, which is a major issue in the horticulture industries."
Adding to the confusion, higher education authorities used different categorisations for enrolments and completions, and included a wide range of environmental and other courses in the agriculture data, making it very difficult to determine actual numbers of agricultural graduates, Mr Keogh said.
“It is very difficult for the sector to develop comprehensive programs to improve labour supply, when the available employment and training data is so poor."
