Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

How Workforce Shortages and Skills Mismatching Impact Enterprise-Level Stability

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Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing’s Drying Labor Well

What the Data Says About the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Industry’s Outlook

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Risk Factors

2.8

Labor Supply

There is a critical shortage of available workers in this sector—between seasonal and physically demanding work located in rural areas, these jobs are less attractive to younger talent and many current workers near retirement. The industry also relies heavily on hands-on experience, which restricts the labor pool by limited training programs.

4.1

Labor Demand

Demand for sustainable agriculture, forestry, and fishing and workers skilled in environmental management is growing. Global demand for food and natural resources will continue to apply pressure. As the industry adopts automated machinery, drone operation, and data analytics, companies will be in fierce competition for workers with these skills.

3.2

Unemployment Rate

Moderately tight unemployment does not necessarily benefit this industry—many unemployed workers lack the necessary skills or are not interested in physical and seasonal work, and drawing workers to rural areas is challenging. Companies will need to improve training and reskilling local workers, and consider incentives for workers to relocate.

3.7

Disruptive Skills

The industry is struggling to integrate new technologies and sustainable practices since many traditional workers currently lack these skills. The industry needs to prepare to close this gap with twofold development: One, in automation and precision agriculture technology, and two, sustainability expertise and environmental science.

Methodology

Lightcast has conducted an in-depth analysis of 627 of Fortune 1000 companies across the globe to grade the threat that the shrinking labor force wil have across various industries. To note, the grades are not based upon anything that companies are doing wrong, but instead to demonstrate the external factors impacting the ability of industries to maintain a future-ready workforce in an Increasingly disruptive landscape.

Grading Definitions:

Workforce Readiness Outlook

Labor Supply Grade

The overall score for the top 15 (or fewer) markets. A high grade means that the markets have high volumes of workers, a low grade means that the markets have a comparatively low labor supply.

Demand Grade

Combination of the two scores for working age population and Fortune 1000 job postings and Key Competitor presence. A high grade means that, comparatively, the company is not in markets with a lot of other major consumers of talent.

Unemployment Rate Grade

The overall score for the top 15 (or fewer) markets. A high grade means that the markets have higher unemployment rates which will allow longer periods of hiring into the future without enormous pressure on wages. A low grade shows that the unemployment rate is already tight and cannot handle further hiring going forward.

Disruptive Skills

The balance of skills companies are exposed to that are both hard to tind and expensive to acquire. An imbalanced exposure means having either too many skills everyone wants to hire, or too lew skills that organizations will need to catch up to competitors tor.

Solving Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Management

Talent Analyst

Revitalizing Career Perceptions

While this industry struggles to attract younger workers, disruptive skills present opportunity: As the industry evolves as sustainability-based and technologically-driven, reshaping employer brands can help pull in new talent. Partnering with educational institutions, especially agricultural colleges, and appealing to the value of a career path in environmental stewardship helps bridge perceptions of working in this industry. As well, partnering with vocational schools to offer training programs focused on digital skills, equipment operation, and automation can help fill the talent pipeline.

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Explore

Talent Transform

Investing in Skills With Precision

Investment in automation, such as autonomous equipment, drones, and smart irrigation systems can reduce reliance on manual labor, especially for repetitive tasks. Precision agriculture and data analytics improves productivity, easing capacity to manage labor shortages. However, this will also require investment in training workers to operate and maintain these systems effectively. Identifying critical roles and mapping skills to disruptive technological skills in the market to identify gaps enables targeted training investments that are directly aligned with both current and future needs.