The Labor Shortage A Hard Hit for the Green Industry


Landscape Management magazine issued their “Landscape Management State of the Industry Report” on December 14, 2022. Tat report gave the results of “How landscape professionals describe the state of the market” as follows for 2022. Sixty-eight percent ranked it as very or relatively healthy; sixteen percent ranked it as flat; and eighteen percent as slightly or significantly down. Te response to the same question, asked in 2021, had provided a more optimistic outlook, with rankings of seventy-eight percent for very or relatively healthy and four percent for flat; with eighteen percent again ranking it as slightly or significantly down.


In addition, the Landscape Management Report gave the landscape professionals’ response to the question, “Has a worker shortage impacted your business?” as seventy-three percent yes and twenty-seven percent no.


LMN, a company providing business management software specifically for the landscape industry, recently released their “Landscaping Industry Report 2023.” Developed from an annual survey the company conducts, it highlights landscaping industry statistics and trends to watch. According to their summary of data from that survey, despite the challenges, “ninety-six percent of landscaping businesses reported a yearly increase in revenue in 2022, with nearly a quarter of respondents reporting that they grew revenue by twenty to fifty percent.”


The Landscape Management Report gave the landscape professionals’ response to the


question, “Has a worker shortage impacted your business?” as


seventy-three percent yes and twenty-seven percent no.


Despite the growth in revenue, LMN noted, “eighty-four percent of landscaping businesses report a struggle to find and keep qualified labor is their greatest challenge.” Te second greatest challenge, noted by sixty-nine present, was “rising costs of everything.” Other challenges listed included managing cash flow (22 percent), maintaining equipment (23 percent), and stiff competition from competitors (28 percent).


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Are Higher Wages Helping?


Tis tight job market continues despite wage increases. Te Week magazine is one of the many resources your editors follow. It provides a comprehensive look at the latest news from the previous seven days consisting primarily of snippets of news stories and opinion columns published by other media outlets, with most articles presenting a broad spectrum of political viewpoints. From Te Week, January 20, 2022, issue, in “Business News at a Glance,” in “Te bottom line” section was this information from Te Wall Street Journal, “Average wages for workers who stuck with their jobs were 5.5 percent higher in November than a year earlier, the biggest jump in 25 years of record keeping, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Employees who changed companies or job duties were making 7.7 percent more than a year earlier.”


And from Te Week, January 27, 2022, issue in that same section, was this information from Te Economist, “Hourly wages have risen about 15 percent in the U.S., on the average, since just before the coronavirus crisis. Te jump is the biggest in a three-year period since the early 1980s.”


And that wage growth is international, too. As the U.K. Office for National Statistics reported, growth in average total pay (including bonuses) and regular pay (excluding bonuses) among employees was the same at 6.4 percent in September to November 2022; for regular pay, this is the strongest growth rate seen outside of the coronavirus pandemic period.


Te LMN survey report noted, “To boost retention and make seasonal roles more appealing to potential employees, respondents to our survey say that they now utilize a bonus system and prioritize career development.” LMN further reported, “As wage increases creep up across the continent, landscape business owners are digging deep into their budget to retain their staff. To stop the mass exodus of trade workers, landscape business owners are offering increasingly competitive wages and bonuses. According to our survey, seventy-six percent of respondents have had to offer raises just to keep their employees on board, while a staggering eighty percent have had to implement a bonus program.”


So, What’s Up with the Economy?


It’s been a rough ride since Covid-19 hit in 2020, and it appears that, despite high hopes at the start of 2022, the economy will continue navigating the roller coaster, though some are anticipating more ups than downs.


In Te Week, January 20, 2023, issue, in the “Business Te news at a glance” section, Fortune reported, “Te S&P 500 fell 19.4 percent for 2022, the biggest decline since 2008, and most investment analysts are not predicting a strong recovery


TPI Turf News March/April 2023


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