COVID-19 Intensifies Labor Shortage Issue in Ag Industries
COVID-19 has pushed the already-dire labor shortage in agriculture into sharp relief, and the numbers aren’t promising for the future.
The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s (CAHRC) recent survey, “Understanding the Effects of COVID-19 on Canada’s Agriculture Workforce,” took the pulse of how COVID-19 has impacted agriculture.
Why it matters: The pandemic has accelerated the labor shortage facing agriculture. Without action, it will continue to negatively impact the industry’s economic outlook.
The survey, which included employers and stakeholders from more than 450 farm operations nationwide, revealed a 7.6% growth in the sector’s gross domestic product but a 41 per cent drop in labor.
Production delays, overtime costs, delayed or cancelled investments and other problems involving pandemic-related labor shortages resulted in $2.9 billion in lost sales. That’s 4.2% of the sector’s total sales.
Despite 3 million Canadians losing their jobs between February and April 2020, there was a decline in local applicants for agriculture jobs across the board.
“Before COVID-19, the rural location, seasonality, wages, and physical requirements of agriculture jobs acted as barriers to recruiting and retaining Canadian workers,” says the survey. “Results from our interviews indicate these barriers have remained unchanged during COVID-19.”
The CAHRC said contracting COVID-19, stay-at-home orders, recovering from the illness, quarantining after travel, childcare or family responsibilities also impacted the number of Canadians applying for agriculture jobs.
Anne Verny, a Quebec vegetable producer, experienced an influx of local applicants, including high school students, but said they often lacked skills and experience, which meant lower productivity and higher turnover.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture launched Feeding Our Future in May 2020 to address the education gap and connect employers with qualified candidates for planting, harvesting, processing, marketing, research and sales. The site also offers webinars, specialized training opportunities and virtual career fairs to increase uptake.
Employee retention was also an issue, said Verny, with only 25 of the 80 people who applied at her farm lasting more than 24 hours.
“(They) did not want to work more than 19 hours (so they could keep their CERB),” she said. “They did not want to work early in the morning or late at night, and they didn’t want to work on weekends.”
The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program was also plagued with challenges, with March 2020 numbers down by 47% compared to 2019.
An estimated one in five TFW jobs went unfilled in 2020, from reasons including travel delays, delays with required documentation and approvals, the inability to secure COVID-19-approved housing, and challenges meeting COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Crop producers were hit the hardest with a 79% reduction in labor, more than half of which was in the horticulture sector, while animal producers saw a 21% reduction.
For more, continue reading at Farmtario.com.
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