An aging workforce will mean hard to fill positions in Wisconsin’s crucial agricultural industry. Department of Workforce Development chief economist Dennis Winters said challenges in the ag sector mirror those in the rest of the state’s economy. “From a workforce standpoint, and with the quantity problem, it’s going to be everybody,” Winters said. “We don’t have as many people as we’d like to fill all the jobs we have on offer. It’s across all skill levels, all industries, all occupations.”
DWD projects that by 2022, the state will have to forgo some 46,000 jobs because they’re won’t be enough people to fill those positions.
“What you’ve got to do is, you’ve got to find about every person you can find, and get them trained up and get them attracted into the industry,” Winters said. “You have to sell it. You have to sell your business to workers now instead of the other way around.” Winters spoke Thursday at the Wisconsin AgriFuture Summit in Madison.