WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Job opportunities for college graduates in agriculture-related fields are expected to remain strong over the next five years, according to a recently released employment report.

The study was released by Purdue University’s College of Agriculture in collaboration with the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Of the 59,400 jobs forecast to be available annually from 2020-2025, 42 percent will be in management and business, the report noted. Thirty one percent will be in science and engineering; 14 percent in education, communication and government; and 13 percent in food and biomaterials production. Management and business along with science and engineering were also the top categories in the 2015-2020 report, which predicted nearly 58,000 jobs would be available annually during those years.

The report – Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Agriculture, Renewable Natural Resources and the Environment – was released in December. A similar report is released every five years.

Work on the study began in September 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Fewer than the average annual number of employment opportunities will be realized in 2020, the authors said. “The project team anticipates expanding employment opportunities in 2021 and during the remainder of the period if the pandemic can be controlled,” they wrote.

The report shows that despite the uncertainty of the past nine months, “the sky is not falling,” said Mike Gaul, director of career services for Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. “There are still opportunities out there. Good people are always in demand. This report reinforces that. You have to get in the game and commit to it. You have to demonstrate your adaptability.”

Gaul, who served as a consultant for the report, said he’s not surprised the management and business category leads in the number of jobs available. “That job market for kids is ridiculously good,” he stated. “In Iowa and the Midwest, those jobs are in ag lending or ag finance, at community banks to farm credit. It’s been that way for several years. The (available) jobs are driven by retirements.”

The pandemic has created new or expanded jobs in such areas as food production, food safety and logistics, Gaul said. “People are changing how they’re eating as a result of the pandemic. Will that continue once the pandemic is over? Overall, I’m convinced there will always be high demand in the food industry.”

J. Marcos Fernandez, a professor of animal sciences at Purdue and one of the report’s authors, said he’s concerned about how the education-related impacts of the pandemic will affect students. “It’s not that students are disengaged, but there’s a bit of a lull in their approach. I worry what that’s going to mean in the long term. How will this impact their readiness for the workplace, their aspirations? There’s no question the jobs will be there.”

Opportunities in digital agriculture and e-commerce are good, he said. E-commerce in marketing, sales and service was already on the rise but has been boosted by the pandemic, Fernandez noted. In the education, communication and government category, there is a need for high school teachers for agriculture, environment and natural resources.

The report said about 61 percent of the available jobs will be filled by graduates in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and the environment; 39 percent will be filled by graduates in allied fields such as biology, mechanical engineering and accounting.

“There are a lot of positions left unfilled by college of agriculture graduates,” Fernandez said. “There aren’t enough of them. We tell families there are more job openings in agriculture and related sciences for students who graduate in our areas of study.”

For the past two decades, women have received more undergraduate agriculture degrees than men, the report said. The numbers for racial and ethnic minorities have also grown over the last two decades. The same is true for women and minorities receiving master’s and doctoral degrees.

The employment study is used by Iowa State as a recruitment tool for its agriculture program, Gaul said. “This is the bellwether report,” he stated. “It helps students decide if they should go to college or if they should take a gap year. Employers value it as well. It helps them see where the trends are in terms of enrollment.”

The report also can help students and their families understand the breadth of career paths available with an agriculture-related education, Fernandez said. “You have to convince students and families that what they’re passionate about can be found in a college of agriculture,” he explained. “It’s not just a pursuit of a passion, but a pursuit of a passion that leads to a job. If you’re passionate about it, chances are you’ll do very well with it.”

To view the study, visit www.purdue.edu/usda/employment/.