There is a new interest in the labor market about working in some aspect of the pork industry, evidently. Not too long ago, it was very worrisome that potential pork industry workers were not aware or were disregarding the opportunities to work in our industry. However, something seems to be happening to shift that sentiment but whether it is blip in the statistics or whether it represents a real trend may be too early to tell.
Two things lead me to make this assertion. While I do not think that we are necessarily out of the woods yet, there are a couple of trends that cause me to pause. One is that many larger producers who have employees and who are accustomed to beating the bushes in attempts to try and find reliable help (or any help for that matter), are telling me that they are having a much easier time of it now. I can think of a lot of reasons that this may be occurring but do not know which to rely on. And it makes me wonder whether turnover is less and current workers are staying around longer. If so, then the labor pool for hiring only has to be a portion of what it was to maintain the same level. Also, I wonder if pork producers aren’t more realistic in their expectations and have learned a lot about how to keep their employees happy and engaged in their work. Job satisfaction goes a long way to keeping employees on the job. Certainly, training of employees has come a long ways and a barn worker who knows what and why he or she is doing something, helps to make them more satisfied with their work.Not very long ago, pork producers always listed human capital and labor availability as one of their most important if not their most important concern. Not the case anymore. It may still be a concern but not the number one concern in most cases.
The other factor that makes me wonder whether we have turned some kind of corner has to do with the trend data that we keep at the US Pork Center of Excellence. We have picked up a survey that was begun by Dr. Duane Reese, extension swine specialist at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Several years ago, Duane began surveying university teachers about their status with regard to teaching swine production or swine science and how many students were enrolled. Since then, the USPCE has undertaken this role and have kept the survey going since. The alarming trend was for elimination of the swine course offering in many of the universities who had taught it and a real decrease in the number of students enrolled in each course. However, more recent data shows a real increase in the total number of students enrolled in swine science each of the past five years out of the 11 years of the survey. In fact, we have seen a more than doubling in the enrollments of students taking some form of swine science over this time frame turning the tide on a distinct and significant trend in the opposite direction. This can only be viewed as a positive by the pork industry. To have college educated individuals that understand our business of pork production for all of us to choose will be support for this industry for years to come whether they work on the site of the pork production enterprise or whether they sell products to us as allied industry partners. We will need to watch this trend very carefully, but if real, it portends well for the science and technology pipeline as well because a percentage of those graduates will definitely go on to grad school. I still wonder though if it is a blip or is it real….