The 2009 national Agribusiness HR Review found lower staff turnover rates, more wage restraint and higher numbers of people due for retirement, compared to previous years.

Specialist rural and regional Human Resources provider, Rimfire Resources, surveyed 69 of the country’s major rural companies and organisations and managing director, Mick Hay, says it’s a case of tightening the belt.

“Despite the winter rains through many areas of southern Australia, and solid prices for commodities like sugarcane and lamb, agribusinesses and their people are in a holding pattern.

“People are staying put. Near half the companies expect their workforce size to remain the same, and 44pc of firms expect in the next one to five years only 1-5pc of the people will retire.

“Companies report salary increases of just 3-4pc and staff turnover rates of less than 2pc.”

A number of other indicators of the rural job market emerged in the HR Review, such as:

• 60pc of companies plan to do more university recruitment over the next 5 years.

• 5pc of companies have not recruited overseas based candidates.

• There is a large range of bonus incentives used in rural industry, with crop protection and rural finance being the providers of the largest bonuses (12+pc), while the dairy and meat, and processing and manufacturing sectors provide the smallest bonuses (0–2pc)

• Technical positions are still the most difficult roles for agribusinesses to recruit talent, as shown in the graph.

Mick Hay says while the primary driver of agribusiness recruitment year-to-year is seasonal conditions, with drought having the major negative effect, the rural sector is very much part of the global economy.

“As in the broader economy in a recession, people don’t job-hop and agribusinesses look to consolidate," he says.

“However, the rates of involuntary turnover and attrition in 2009 are lower than last year, which indicates that agribusiness acted upon poor trading conditions last year due to the prolonged drought, and have already taken the action of reducing staff numbers.

“Obviously, it is hoped that Australian agriculture sees both more rain and an upturn in the global economic cycle,” he says.

This is the seventh compilation of data and information from 69 leading Australian agribusinesses, covering the privately listed, publicly unlisted, non-profit and statutory body sectors.