Pest Management Sector

The pest management industry has a workforce of approximately 7,500.  These workers are employed in 1,194 enterprises, mostly small businesses but with some major companies.  The pest management market is stable and benefits from continuing outsourcing of these essential services by industry and government. This industry is increasingly providing sophisticated services and the key to effective pest management is expert assessment of theproblem to develop and implement a range of holistic long-term eradication and control strategies for clients. 

Higher standards demanded by clients will involve the introduction of more environmentally friendly control methods requiring enhanced business practices and higher skilled personnel.  Environmental concerns lead to increasingly less toxic pesticides being used in the industry although this means more frequent treatments are required. There is an expanding demand for specialised pest management in the food industry and for bird management services. 

Attraction of new entrants to the industry, which is not always on the employment ‘radar', and retaining qualified technicians is an ongoing issue for this sector, plus the changing nature of pest management treatments and materials means regular up-skilling of the workforce is a priority.