This report continues a series of reports on employment opportunities for college graduates in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and the environment (FARNRE) initiated in 1980.  While maintaining consistency in data sources and procedures where possible, the 2025-2030 study differs from earlier studies in this series in several important ways. First, associate degree holders are included in the analysis. Second, the procedure used to develop the forecast of job openings is more rigorous than that used in earlier studies and draws on web-scrape data of position announcements for FARNRE jobs. Because employers are dropping degree requirements in position announcements, some jobs that will be filled by high school graduates are also included in the forecast of job openings (about 10% of the total FARNRE jobs available).

Third, the job openings data have been further disaggregated beyond the four general job clusters used in previous reports (Business and Management; Science and Engineering; Food and Biomaterials Production; and Education, Communication and Governmental Services) into 11 subclusters. In addition, the job openings projections have been disaggregated into five geographic regions. The expansion of the job openings data into 11 subclusters and the disaggregation of job openings into five geographic regions represent enhancements to the analysis. These enhancements are significant because: 1) moving from four broad clusters to 11 subclusters provides a more detailed understanding of workforce demand across specific career fields; and 2) regional projections reveal how job opportunities vary across the U.S., supporting more targeted educational programs and workforce development strategies.

While these changes represent improvements in study methodology with the goal of providing more robust demand and supply estimates for FARNRE jobs/graduates, they also mean trend analysis drawing on previous reports must explicitly consider these changes and should be conducted only where appropriate. Appendix 2 to this report provides detail on the data sources and procedures used to develop the estimates of job openings and available FARNRE graduates for the 2025-2030 report.

The report is intended to help both colleges and universities and employers anticipate shifts in the supply of and demand for FARNRE talent. For colleges and universities, such shifts can impact student recruitment, career office strategies and academic program investments. For employers, insights on supply of and demand for FARNRE talent can impact recruiting approaches, onboarding programs and broader human resource strategies.