LEXINGTON, KY (March 24, 2014) - The CSAW, a consortium of both agri-business and agriclutural academic societies has released the results of their recent survey:"U.S. Ag Scientists Hiring Needs Outlined for Top Six Largest Life Science CompaniesIn 2013, CSAW (The Coalition for a Sustainable Agricultural Workforce) conducted (through a third party research firm) a confidential survey among CSAW member companies to better understand their projected, near-term needs for hiring domestic agricultural scientists.>>CSAW 2013 Agricultural Science Workforce Census Final Report>>CSAW 2013 Agricultural Science Workforce Census Executive Summary PresentationAnswers from the six largest responding CSAW life science companies show they expect to hire more than 1,000 domestic scientist-level FTEs between now and 2015, representing 13% of their current agricultural scientist workforce. The largest numbers of ag scientists to hire (84% of the total) in the life-science focused identified disciplines were: plant sciences, plant breeding/genetics, and plant protection. Nearly half (46%) will need to hold doctoral degrees. These companies are concerned about their ability to successfully fill this workforce need between now and 2015. In each of those three major disciplines, virtually all respondents concurred that:

• The pipeline of graduates in this discipline isn't as full as it needs to be.
• We anticipate challenges in finding quality applicants.
• We are likely to have difficulty hiring the education and experience we seek.
• We will need to retrain some hires in this discipline.

CSAW was organized by a consortium of agribusiness companies and scientific societies to promote the education and training of future generations of the agricultural workforce. These data suggest there may be both a long-term and very near-term issue in finding the skill and talent needed to ensure a sustainable agricultural enterprise."

Read more at the source for this post at: http://www.sustainable-ag-workforce.org/facts