The first quarter of 2023 set a record for the Brazilian agribusiness labor market. The employed population in the sector reached 28.1 million people, the best result for the first quarter of a given year and the second-best performance in the historical series, which began in 2012. In this year’s first quarter, the total number of people employed in agribusiness accounted for 27% of the total stock of jobs in the country.
This data comes from the report “Brazilian Agribusiness Labor Market,” an unprecedented publication published by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) in partnership with the Center for Studies in Applied Economics (CEPEA). The idea is to analyze the population employed in the sector each quarter and the evolution of the so-called “employment stock.”
The report’s results show that the agricultural services sector was the main contributor to this performance, with an expansion of 6.7% (616 thousand people) compared to 2022’s first and last quarters.
“This expected growth in jobs in agro-services mainly reflects the outstanding performance of agricultural production in the farms—with the expectation of a record 2022-2023 grain harvest, added to the expected higher production of coffee and sugarcane—, which should translate into an expansion of transportation, storage, trade, and other services (such as financial, accounting, legal, and communication, among others) provided to agribusiness,” explains the report.
The agribusiness worker profile
The CNA/CEPEA report highlights the increase in the number of women employed in Brazilian agribusiness. In the first quarter of 2023, the female employed population grew by 1.3% compared to the same period last year (almost 140 thousand more women). Wages followed this increase, which reached 5.9%.
Regarding the workforce profile, the study highlights an increase in the number of workers with a formal contract of 6.1% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year, which means an increase of more than 532.1 thousand people formally employed.