LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s agricultural businesses are hiring, but finding people with the right skills to fill jobs is a challenge, according to industry leaders.

“We kind of have an image problem,” said Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Jamie Clover Adams. “People think about agriculture as it was when my dad was a kid; my dad is 75. It’s not like that anymore. Agriculture is very high-tech.”

Larry Zink, an industry specialist at Michigan State University, agreed.  “Agriculture and the food industry is not a sexy business,” Zink said. “Most people’s perception of agriculture is the farm. They don’t realize what the farm is. Today, typically if it’s a farm, it’s big business and it has a lot of working parts and a lot of opportunities.”

Some typical jobs available in the agricultural sector include accounting, marketing and communications, information technology, sales manager, human resource manager, animal nutrition consultant, sales consultant and more. Zink said, however, many traditional college students don’t think about applying their skills in the industry.

“You get a student, let’s say from Detroit, and they want to be an accountant. They are thinking big city – Chicago, New York – they’re not thinking rural America,” he said.

Zink believes a key to solving the equation is changing the perception people have that they have to be from an agricultural background to work in the industry. “The rural agricultural sector is getting smaller. It’s time to turn to the other side and convince the non-rural students that there are opportunities across all areas,” he said. “If you want to be in business, you can be in food and agriculture. If you want to be an engineer, you can be in food and agriculture.”

Clover Adams said it’s important to note Michigan’s agricultural industry grew through the recession. “Things are booming,” she said. “We have all these goals. We want to double exports and increase the value of agriculture and food, but we have to have people to do it.”

The first step, she said, is to communicate with people about the opportunities in the agricultural sector. “Our department can do that,” she said – and she encourages farmers to do the same. “Farmers are their own best salesmen. Anything they can do to promote ag will help the industry. By going out and telling people about the opportunities in their industry, they are part of the solution.”

Clover Adams said partnering with educational leaders at the K-12, community college and university levels, as well as MichiganWorks and other employment services, is also key to building a competent and competitive workforce for the agricultural industry. “Together, we need to come up with a plan to bring people into our sector,” she said. “There are a lot of people who are not in manufacturing anymore, who can fit well into our sector.”

According to the 2011 Agribusiness Job Report, the nation’s unemployment rate hovered around 9 percent last year, while the number of jobs posted on AgCareers.com soared. More than 43,000 jobs were posted on the site in 2011 in the United States and Canada – an increase of 18 percent from 2010.

More than 71 percent of those jobs were posted in the Midwest – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Top career types included sales and marketing, management, production, operations and general, which ranked No. 2 and, according to the report, allowed companies to collect a wider range of applicants for available positions.

Cindy Tilden, human resources director with Michigan Milk Producers Assoc. (MMPA), said recruiting qualified employees can be challenging, but qualified applicants don’t necessarily need to have knowledge of the agricultural industry.

The organization has a variety of positions similar to those found in large food industry companies, according to Tilden. MMPA has approximately 210 full-time employees who work in positions such as accounting, information technology, human resources, sales, dispatch, communications, public affairs and quality at the organization’s corporate headquarters in Novi. The milk marketing cooperative also has employees at its two manufacturing plants in Constantine and Novi, and field staff who live and work in the rural communities from where its 2,000-plus members hail.

Tilden said the company puts much effort into recruiting, training and retaining employees. “We seek employees whose interest is a career with an organization such as MMPA,” she said. “Curiosity, commitment and integrity are basic attributes that we value across all work disciplines. A demonstrated interest in improvement, whether via education or experience, is also a characteristic we seek.”

With a lack of retail presence, she said the cooperative’s name brand recognition is limited. While consumers like milk and the product has a good image, many don’t realize the variety of jobs available in the dairy industry.

“We have some challenges in getting the word out about our organization and its opportunities,” Tilden said. But, the bottom line is “you don’t need to be on the farm to be in the dairy industry.”

She said the company doesn’t have a single approach to filling positions. Instead, it uses recruiting tools such as job fairs, online postings, employee referrals, college campus interviews, internships and contingency or retained recruiters.

“We typically look for a base skill set, specific to the position, but just as important is the personal fit with the supervisor, department and organization,” she said. “It’s a blend of education, experience and personal aptitudes that is considered when deciding who to offer employment.”