Workers working in agriculture continue to grow and already exceed pre-pandemic numbers

The number of people working in Brazilian agribusiness continues to increase throughout 2022. Research carried out by Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics), from Esalq/USP, based on information from PNAD-Contínua microdata and RAIS data, show that, in the third quarter of this year, the employed population (PO) in agribusiness totaled 19,07 million people, an increase of 0,9% (or 170,8 thousand people) compared to the same period in 2021 and the highest number since 2015, when the PO totaled 19,08 million people.

Cepea researchers indicate that this growth in the number of workers in the sector is linked to the performances observed in the agro-industry and agro-services segments, which not only recovered the occupations lost as a result of the developments of the covid-19 pandemic, but also already exceed the contingents observed before the health crisis.

For the agroindustry, the employed contingent of 4,06 million is the highest for a third quarter since 2015, when 4,2 million workers were registered in the segment. In the case of agriservices, the number of people working in the segment totaled 6,34 million in the third quarter, a record, considering the historical series monitored by Cepea, which began in 2012.

Brazil

In Brazil as a whole, 99,27 million people were employed in the third quarter of 2022, up from 92,97 million in the same period last year. Given this, the participation of agribusiness in the Brazilian labor market was 20,33% from July to September 2022, slightly below that observed in the third quarter of 2021, when it was 20,55%.