The horticulture industry's age problem is bigger than you think

[FSogol]

But horticulture is facing its own crisis. As older plant growers, nursery managers and groundskeepers reach retirement age, there are too few Nora Palmers arriving to replace them.

And to state something so apparent it seems forgotten: Everyone needs plants. Plants feed us, oxygenate us, heal us, shade us and clothe us. Plants are the stuff of legal booze and illicit drugs, and, perhaps more obviously, they simply delight us. Despite this reliance, most Americans are said to be able to identify no more than 10 species growing around them. This indifference seems to be one of the woes facing the green industry.

Snip

“We have more employers calling us than we have students to fill the jobs,” said John Dole, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. “We aren’t meeting the needs of the industry.”

According to a 2015 study, nearly 58,000 jobs become available each year in agriculture-related fields, but only 61 percent are filled by qualified graduates.

Good article by Adrian Higgins of the Washington Post

Entire article here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-horticulture-industrys-age-problem-is-bigger-than-you-think/2018/08/05/3c7d3618-734f-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.0f3ccd92afeb

[MineralMan]

1. Entry level jobs in that industry pay poorly.

Low pay, hard work, and other factors combine to deter people from wanting those jobs, frankly. It's just not seen as an industry that offers great opportunities.

[Adrahil]

2. Exactly....

I know some civil engineers who considered a career in agriculture (doing drainage, water filtering, etc). But the starting pay was ridiculously low. They were getting 2-3 times more to start with other fields.

[MineralMan]

4. I've worked on a website for a landscape company.

Equipment costs, competition and resistance of clients to pay what their services are worth keep the owners always on the margin of success. To compete, they pay the employees who actually do the work as little as possible. That means that they often have to hire workers with questionable legal status or people with questionable backgrounds. They can't attract the workers they wish they could hire.

That particular company works primarily on lakeshore properties in Minnesota. High-value homes and large grounds. But, they get hammered by the competitive nature of the business. Charge enough to make the work profitable and competitors will move in and convince property owners to hire them for less.

Landscape maintenance isn't too challenging, but creating high-value landscaping projects is. And the actual work of doing it is hard, and doesn't appeal to most people.

It's a tough business to be in.

[Botany]

3. Shitty pay and very hard work too

n/t