Workforce recruiters are having a hard time placing workers in rural America. On the service side, they say jobs are plentiful, but applications are few and far between.
“They think it’s an unglamorous job, possibly. They want to be more involved in a sales role or management, but like anywhere else, I think the place to be in employment right now is in service, whether it’s the retail agronomy, whether it’s starting as a technician at an implement dealership, if you have the training and skills, you can advance quickly in that industry or outside of Ag, like electricians, those types of things, are also service repair work where we’re always going to need them,” said Tammy Jensen, president of AgriCareers Inc.
Jensen encourages young farmers to stick with it and to always be willing to do more. Right now, the average age of the U.S. farmer is around 60 years old.
