Food / Agricultural Technician
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Food or Agricultural Technician assists agricultural and food scientists with research and testing related to safety and quality control. May focus on testing and lab analysis for animal crops and animal feed, or focus on testing and lab analysis for food, food crops, processed food, food additives and food containers.
Job Outlook
There were 547 Food / Agricultural Technician job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 20519 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Food / Agricultural Technician industry, which includes the Food / Agricultural Technician career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Food / Agricultural Technician jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $46,089.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $44,299.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Food / Agricultural Technician postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $36,161.
Education and Experience
Posted Food / Agricultural Technician jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 20.56% |
| Master's Degree | 6.36% |
| Doctoral Degree | 3.05% |
| Other | 32.7% |
Posted Food / Agricultural Technician jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 61.53% |
| 3 to 5 years | 32.27% |
| 6 to 8 years | 2.99% |
| 9+ years | 3.21% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Food / Agricultural Technician positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (31.17%)
- Customer Service (27.78%)
- Operations (27.41%)
- Sales (22.74%)
- Management (20.74%)
- Detail Oriented (17.52%)
- Lifting Ability (14.55%)
- Sanitation (11.41%)
- Research (11.34%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (11.05%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Agronomy (20.57%)
- Agriculture (33.47%)
- Crop Production (10.26%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Agricultural Equipment (7.33%)
- Fertilizers (18.88%)
- Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Points (HACCP) (8.38%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (9.59%)
- Food Safety And Sanitation (19.56%)
- Food Services (13.05%)
- Warehousing (8.84%)
- Machinery (9.17%)
- Marketing (6.58%)
- Soil Science (8.93%)
- Irrigation (Landscaping And Agriculture) (11.42%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Soil Sampling (4.21%)
- Plant Science (5.96%)
- Precision Agriculture (3.68%)
- Crop Scouting (1.79%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Crop Scouting (6.02%)
- Agronomy (69.1%)
- Precision Agriculture (12.37%)
- Crop Production (34.46%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Food / Agricultural Technician skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Custom Applicator
- Food and Beverage Attendant
- Food Service Technician
- Sales Agronomist
- Agricultural Technician
- Horticulture Technician
- Applicator
- Agronomist
- Agricultural Specialist
- Food Safety Quality Assurance Technician
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Farm / Ranch Manager
- Food / Agricultural Inspector
- Food and Agricultural Scientist / Technologist
- Nursery / Greenhouse Manager
- Farm / Nursery / Greenhouse Worker
- Food / Beverage Quality Manager
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Food / Agricultural Technician jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Target (1396)
- GPAC (1300)
- Nutrien (706)
- Growmark (416)
- Natural Resources Conservation Service (304)
- Wilbur-Ellis (266)
- Bayer (251)
- Helena Agri Enterprises (212)
- PAM Health (200)
- Actalent (180)
North Carolina
- North Carolina State University (49)
- Target (35)
- State of North Carolina (24)
- GPAC (22)
- Appalachian State University (16)
- Southern States Cooperative (15)
- North Carolina State Of (14)
- Cone Health (11)
- Southern States (9)
- United States Forest Service (8)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Agricultural Science Undergraduate Degrees
- Agriculture Data Science Graduate Certificates
- Animal Nutrition Undergraduate Certificates
- Crop Science Undergraduate Certificates
- Feed Milling Undergraduate Certificates
- Food Safety & Quality Management Undergraduate Certificates
- General Horticulture Undergraduate Certificates
- Horticultural Science Graduate Certificates
- Horticultural Science Master's Degrees
- Plant Pests, Pathogens and People Undergraduate Certificates
- Soil Science Master's Degrees
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.