CRACKING summer and winter crops in 2016 sent agribusinesses on a hiring spree, research has shown.
New data from Rimfire Resources’ latest rural jobs index shows there were 30.75 per cent more jobs advertised online in 2016 compared to 2015.
Rimfire’s director Nigel Crawley said agribusinesses last year clearly had a positive outlook.
“If you look at the figures from 2012-2015 you can see job advertisements had been dropping slightly each year. In 2016 we had a great summer crop followed by winter season which meant most sectors apart from dairy went well,” he said.
“The sectors which advertised the most jobs were processing, manufacturing, advocacy organisations, retail distribution and commodity trading businesses – these are the sectors that employ a lot of people as well. If they have a big jump then there’s going to be significant increase overall.”
For the third year in a row more production-oriented roles were advertised than management. Ads for jobs in feedlots and rural finance were scarce.
An increase in the total number of online job advertisements was seen across all states. NSW advertised the most jobs, followed by Victoria and Queensland.
In 2016 the largest numbers of online job advertisements were recorded during November (476) followed by August (440) and July (43).
“The figures from July and August are typically an indication of how businesses feel the year is shaping up from a winter cropping point of view. November is typically a big month for hiring in anticipation of harvest.”
In 2015 there were 12.79pc more jobs advertised online than in 2014. This two year period of growth in online advertisements follows four consecutive years of decline.
