In three years, sector generated 359,600 formal jobs and closed 15,470 informal ones, says FGVAgro study
04/05/2023
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Worker on a cattle farm in Marabá, Pará: last year, almost 14 million people worked in agriculture in Brazil — Foto: Evandro Monteiro/Valor
The labor market is gradually becoming more formal in the agribusiness sector, although informal work still dominates the industry. In three years, the sector generated 359,600 formal jobs and closed 15,470 informal ones, according to a study conducted by Fundação Getulio Vargas’s Center for Agribusiness Studies (FGV Agro), based on microdata from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD-C).
In 2022, 13.96 million people were employed in the sector, while in 2019 this number was 13.62 million, according to the moving average of the year’s four quarters. This growth trend in jobs in the sector had already been indicated in a recent analysis by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea) of Esalq/USP, with cross-referenced data from the Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) and the National Household Sampling Survey (PNAD), showing an even greater number of workers in the sector, 18.97 million last year, an increase of 2.7% compared to 2021.
Formal employment, therefore, has driven the growth of jobs in the sector. In FGV Agro’s analysis period, from 2019 to 2022, the rate of formal jobs in the agribusiness sector increased to 40.1% from 38.4%, the highest since PNAD-C records began in 2016. The data show that the segment is expanding the hiring of more qualified workers, despite a high informality rate in relation to the aggregate of the economy and the existence of cases of labor analogous to slavery even in the production chain of large companies.
This phenomenon is linked to the sector’s income growth in recent years, said Felippe Serigatti, study coordinator and researcher at FGV Agro. He points out that despite several recent shocks, such as the pandemic, harvest losses after the historic drought of 2021, and the fertilizer supply crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine, Brazilian agribusiness continued to grow because of the high commodities prices both in reais and dollars. “Prices have been very favorable, which has increased the producers’ margin, which in turn leads to investments and incorporation of technology,” he said.
If until recently the use of technology displaced low-skilled workers, now the new technologies, specially those linked to the automation of farming activities, are absorbing more skilled workers able to deal with new equipment. “In the past, the loss of jobs in agribusiness was not a bad thing. The sector freed up labor for other sectors,” he added. “This new labor force is entering the formal labor market more skilled, either as a formal employee or working on its own.”
Even with the increase in jobs, the perception among agribusiness companies and rural producers is that there is still a lack of labor in the field. “Nowadays we have great difficulty in hiring a machine operator. Employees receive job offers of other companies all the time,” said Alexandre Figliolino, a partner at MB Agro, adding that the solution is to provide incentives.
It is possible that, at some point, the new technologies will have the opposite effect, replacing the existing labor force. Mr. Sergiatti does not rule out the possibility of this happening at some point. “But today, the labor that is being freed up is the less skilled and informal.”
The scenario, however, is still one of high informality, said Gabriel Bezerra, president of the National Confederation of Rural Salaried Workers (Contar). “This growth in jobs is because agribusiness is growing, with exports on the rise and the rural GDP growing even in the pandemic,” he said.
He believes that there is also a portion of agricultural companies “trying to find an answer to the rising number of cases of labor analogous to slavery, which has increased.” The level of formality, though, is still low, he said. “Surveys still show a high level of informality.”
Por Camila Souza Ramos — São Paulo
Source: Valor International