There’s no end in sight to Canada’s farm labour shortage.
According to a survey conducted by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, farm employment needs are expected to increase by at least 15 percent over the next five years because of retirement, attrition and expansion.
Canadian farms employed 336,200 people in 2008, the year the survey was conducted.
The average vacancy rate was nine percent, but increased to 10 percent on the Prairies and approximately 15 percent in British Columbia.
Jobs in the horticultural industry, such as berry, vegetable and tree fruit farms, will be the most difficult to fill. That industry will likely need up to 52 percent more employees over the next few years. It already has the highest vacancy rate, at 28 percent.
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The survey also found that farmers are concerned about the need to hire more mechanics and experienced machinery operators. They indicated they would need to hire another 39 percent more of these skilled tradespeople in the future.
The council was created to address human resource issues facing primary agriculture.
In the survey, farmers said most of their recruitment was through word of mouth via family and friends. More than half used newspapers to attract new workers and less than half used the internet or government offices.
Farmers also felt keeping employees was difficult and showed a growing interest in the temporary foreign worker program.
Farmers expect that 50,900 nonseasonal positions and 38,800 seasonal positions will need to be filled by 2013.
