Employed population, income and schooling in agriculture increase – 07/31/2023 – Vaivém

In the first quarter of 2023, at least 28.1 million people worked in agribusiness. It is a record for this period of the year since 2012, when Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics) started this monitoring.

The contingent of the population employed in the sector grows, but the participation in the country’s total decreases. In 2012, agribusiness represented 29.2% of the workforce in Brazil. It retreated to 28.6% in 2017 and is at 27% this year.

Cepea’s occupation survey started to have a partnership with the CNA (Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil) this year and incorporated a new evaluation, that of workers whose production is destined exclusively for their own consumption and of the residents of their homes.

They are workers focused on self-consumption, so named by the research. They are mostly inside the gate and total 5.3 million in the country. The survey includes tasks related to cultivation, fishing, hunting, animal husbandry and forest production.

Also included are handicraft work and some activities within other segments, such as agro-service.

Renato Conchon, coordinator of CNA’s Economic Nucleus, says that monitoring this segment of self-consumption workers was necessary. “It is a public that needs a social policy. Only labor and agricultural policies will not solve it. It is not seen by Caged (General Register of Employed and Unemployed) and by Rais (Annual List of Social Information), but it cannot be ignored. “

For the coordinator, it is an audience that has not been attended and it needs to be shown. The vast majority do not have access to agricultural policies, plant only to eat and supplement their food with the Bolsa Família program and sporadic jobs.

This methodological adjustment was important in the research, says the coordinator.

Data on the population employed in agriculture in the first quarter of this year show an increase of 1.2% in the number of workers in agroindustry, but a decrease of 5.2% in rural areas. Of the 28.1 million employed persons, 8.3 million were in agriculture and livestock, 456 thousand less than last year.

One of the highlights of the survey is the drop in workers employed in grain production. In the first quarter of this year, there were 70 thousand less. For Cepea, one of the causes is the reduction of area in rice production.

Data from Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento) indicate a retraction in the national rice area to 1.48 million hectares in the 2022/23 harvest, 8.5% less than in the previous one. This is the smallest planted area for the cereal in Conab data.

Conchon attributes, among the reasons for this reduction in the cereal sector, an evolution of technology in the field and a possible form of registration of workers by producers. The records would be concentrated more on soybeans, although the workers also perform functions in the production of other crops such as rice, wheat and corn.

The number of soy workers increased by 6,439 this year, to a total of 549,000 in the activity, 1.2% more than in the first quarter of 2022. National soy production jumped to a record 156 million tons in harvest 2022/23.

The greatest gain in workers in crops occurred in the sugarcane sector, which saw an increase of 48,000 employed persons. In livestock, all sectors lost workers, with cattle farming being the most representative, with a reduction of 34 thousand.

In the agricultural agroindustry, juice and pasta processing led the hiring, while ethanol and wooden furniture were the ones that lost the most.

In the livestock agroindustry, all segments increased hiring, especially the slaughter segment, which increased the number of workers by 76 thousand.

The largest contingent of the employed population, however, occurred in the agro-services sector, which increased the workforce by 616 thousand people. This picture reflects the record performance of agricultural production inside the gate.

The good volumes of harvests are transformed into expansion of transport, storage, trade and other services provided to agribusiness.

As for the profile of the workforce, CNA and Cepea found an increase in the formalization of the workforce, with an increase in the number of workers with a formal contract. They totaled 9.2 million, 6.1% more.

The level of education has also been increasing. This year, the total number of workers with a university degree surpassed by 4% that of the first quarter of 2022. Those with a medium degree were 4.4% more, and those without education, 2% more. This last category represents 6.6% of the sector’s workforce.

The average salary in agribusiness rose 5.9% in the analyzed period, slightly above the 5.4% of the national average. Workers in the input sectors and those working at the gate obtained the highest readjustments, with rises of 9.4% and 8.1%, respectively.

The survey by Cepea and CNA uses data from the Pnad-Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) by IBGE as its main source of information. Cepea applies its own methodologies to identify activities related to agribusiness.