Labor Outlook for 2026

I recently came across a Nursery Management article from October, 2007, titled “Top Issues That Will Affect Your Business”. It talked about the findings of a survey of container growers that had been done to understand their top concerns and issues. The first bullet point on the list is: “Labor cost and availability”. Fast forward nearly 20 years, and labor is still the biggest challenge facing our industry. While specific concerns may change from year to year, overall, the rising cost of wages, limited availability of qualified labor, and barriers to automation remain as the biggest obstacles to finding a long-term solution to our labor problem.