Plenty of jobs on the farm

Want a job? Then get the first train out of town, especially if that town is Auckland. That's the consistent message of the ANZ job advertisement survey - the provinces are where the jobs are.

The latest report - a survey of April job ads - found the level was 11 per cent lower in Auckland than a year ago. From Waikato to Otago, though, was such a different story it might as well have been another country.

The summary looked like this:

Waikato: job ads rose 6.1 per cent and were 2.5 per cent higher than last April.

Hawkes Bay: 12.6 per cent higher than a year ago.

Manawatu: rose for the third consecutive month.

Wellington: the annual growth rate was 6.4 per cent and rising.

Canterbury: a rise of 5.4 per cent - the highest since September 2001.

Otago: an increase of 1.6 per cent, lower than a year ago but still historically high.

The ANZ reports have highlighted the strong trend in the rural job market for some time. In October, for instance, it said the major thrust in last year's job advertisements was "a consequence of strength in New Zealand's rural regions".

Before then, nationwide job advertising closely mimicked the situation in the biggest metropolitan centres, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Growth subsequently flattened in the cities "while nationwide job advertising growth has continued to increase, suggesting that provincial New Zealand has been the power-house of job ad growth in recent times".

It's not news in the rural areas, certainly not good news. There, job ad growth is better known as a labour and/or skills shortage. It's been a worry for such a long time that in 2002 a workshop was held in Rotorua to examine human resource issues in agriculture. After years of much talk but little action on the sector's widely acknowledged and growing inability to attract and keep a range of workers, the event was something of a summit of the desperate.

Some startling statistics got a run.

By 2030 the dairy industry was predicted to need 8000 graduate farm managers, 250 consultants and 100 PhD level researchers.

Horticulture was expected to grow from a $2 billion industry to a $3.5 billion one by 2010. The labour force required to service Central Otago alone was predicted to be 4100 by about now, up from 2800 in 2001-02.

Farmer employers were perceived to have poor employment relationship skills. They quickly fired staff when things got tight, didn't subscribe to a "learning culture", were too busy to teach, expected staff to have the same commitment they did, and were poor promoters of their industry.

The upshot was around 17 agriculture and horticulture bodies established a pan-sector group. It's been tackling such issues as educating farmers to be better employers, convincing high school careers advisers that rural jobs are not the preserve of the brawny but dull, and on innovative ways to reach school leavers.

Meat and Wool NZ executive Allan Frazer chairs the Human Capabilities in Agriculture and Horticulture working group.

The group defines its job market as being on-farm or near-farm, which includes science bodies, fertiliser companies, stock and station agencies and rural contractors. The sheep and beef farm sector, for instance, also works with meat companies promoting careers in processing.

"We are running to keep up. It is a tight job market and there's strong interest in city-based jobs while we [ag/hort] have a perception problem," he said.

Putting "young champions" (examples of successful rural personnel) in front of job seekers at careers expos had paid dividends "but you're not going to change perceptions overnight".

Industry bodies have worked individually and collectively on many fronts, some of the effort funded by MAF's sustainable farming fund including research on employment needs "so we can make smarter decisions", Frazer said.

For three years, ag/hort bodies have put on a united face at careers expos, held "careers breakfasts" for school advisers, lobbied successfully for immigration rule change so foreign farm workers on graduating from training courses can get permanent residency, and worked towards "seamless education".

Frazer said the aim was to be able to cross-credit AgIto diploma courses with those at universities and polytechs.

An agreement has been signed between the AgITo, the HortIto and Lincoln University, and others are being sought with Massey University and polytechs.

On other fronts, a report has reviewed the ag/hort industry's leadership needs to define necessary skills, and dairy industry body Dexcel has produced books and CDs as a human resources management tool kit for farmers. Meat and Wool NZ plans to adapt the resource for its farmers.

Next month at the Mystery Creek National Fieldays an internet portal, dedicated to rural sector training and career opportunities, will be launched.

"It would be wrong to claim that after 2 1/2 years we are suddenly moving mountains," Frazer said, "we are not. But we are putting in a solid foundation for the longer term."