Farmworkers and gardeners: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Summary

In 2021, agriculture represented about 1.3 per cent of the EU’s gross value added. It is a sector in which the increase in production is coupled with a decline in employment. Farmworkers and gardeners, who mainly work in the agriculture sector, account for around 2 per cent of all employment in the EU. These workers are important for meeting the ambitions of the European Green Deal’s strategies such as the Farm to Fork Strategy. 
Farmworkers and gardeners form the core of the workforce in the agriculture sector. They are employed or own farms producing crops, fruits, and other plants, and farms breeding and tending animals (including aquatic animals). They also cultivate, conserve, and exploit forests. Jobs within this group include field crop and vegetable growers, gardeners, livestock, dairy and poultry producers, apiarists, forest rangers, aquaculture workers, and deep-sea fishery workers.
 

Key facts

• Around 5.5 million people were employed as farmworkers and gardeners in 2022, which accounted for almost 3 per cent of total EU employment in 2022. 
• Between 2012 and 2022 employment for farmworkers and gardeners declined somewhat. Over the same period, employment across all occupations in the EU had increased by almost 8 per cent.
• Between 2019 and 2020, when the EU experienced economic lockdowns, 114 thousand farmworkers and gardener jobs were lost. Reduction in employment accelerated in the following year and by the end of 2022, employment was 961 thousand workers short of the pre-Covid-19 level.
• Most farmworkers and gardeners – 83 per cent in 2021 - are employed in the agricultural sector.
• Slightly more than half of farmworkers and gardeners (56 per cent) have attained a qualification level ISCED 3 (i.e. upper secondary education) and 4 (i.e. post-secondary non-tertiary education) in 2021. The qualification level of the occupation is not expected to change over the period to 2035.
• Farmworkers and gardeners are mainly men (71 per cent in 2021).
• The employment of farmworkers and gardeners is projected to decline markedly (by almost one third) between 2022 and 2035. Within the same period, overall employment is projected to increase by 3 per cent. 
• Although there will be a decrease in the overall number of newly created jobs for farmworkers and gardeners, there will be a large number of farmworker and gardener jobs to be filled in over the same period. This is because an estimated 4.2 million people are expected to leave the occupation mainly due to retirement. Considering also the job loss, this means that an estimated 1.8 million job openings will need to be filled in between 2022 and 2035. 
• The introduction of digital technologies – such as precision farming and new automated machinery- and the need to adopt circular economy principles, such as those advocated by the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy, will drive changes in the skills required of farmworkers and gardeners in the future. The unattractiveness of the agricultural sector to young workers is a factor that threatens the potential to fill in the many vacant positions forecast to emerge due to the need to replace retired workers.
   

Employment and job demand

Employment of farmworkers and gardeners was declining the last decade, and the trend was only reversed in 2022 (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: Year-to-year employment change for farmworkers and gardeners (2013-2022)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Employed persons by detailed occupation (ISCO-08 two digit level) [LFSA_EGAI2D__custom_7778289]. Own calculations.

The vast majority of farmworkers and gardeners (94 per cent) are employed as market-oriented skilled agricultural workers. These are workers, who are engaged in growing and harvesting fruits and crops and producing a variety of animals and animal products with the purpose of selling or delivering them on a regular basis to wholesale buyers, retail store organisations, or at markets. 

Overall, 5 per cent of farmworkers and gardeners are engaged as market-oriented skilled forestry, fishery and hunting workers. People employed in these jobs cultivate, conserve and exploit natural and plantation forests, and breed and raise or catch fish and other aquatic animals with the purpose of selling or delivering them on a regular basis to wholesale buyers, retail store organisations, or at markets.

A very small share (less than 1 per cent) of farmworkers and gardeners are engaged as subsistence farmers, fishers, hunters and gatherers. These workers grow and harvest field, tree and shrub crops, vegetables, fruits and other plants, hunt land and aquatic animals with the purpose of providing food, and, in some cases, ensure minimum cash income for themselves and their households. 

Between 2016 and 2021, the share of employment accounted for by market-oriented skilled agricultural workers slightly increased from, while the share of subsistence farmers, fishers, hunters and gatherers declined. However, as both forestry, fishery and hunting workers, and subsistence farmers are really small occupations in terms of employment, the related employment trends may be subject of error. 

Figure 2: Employment in farmworker and gardener jobs (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The agriculture sector employs the majority of farmworkers and gardeners (83 per cent in 2021). The remaining farmworkers and gardeners’ employment are distributed across various sectors.  

For more details on skills demand and job openings for this occupation, please access the Cedefop’s Skills OVATE tool.

Figure 3: The top sectors employing farmworkers and gardeners (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

As regards the share of farmworkers and gardeners within sectoral employment, these workers form a significant portion of the workforce in the agriculture sector. In 2021, farmworkers and gardeners constituted the vast majority of workers in this sector, accounting for two thirds of its employment.

In 2021, the share of employment in each country varied from 9 per cent in Greece to less than 2 per cent in many European countries (Figure 4). 

Figure 4: Farmworkers and gardeners as a share of overall country employment (2021, in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations. 
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size. 
LFS data for MT are not available. 

The workforce is composed mainly of men. In 2016, 67 per cent of farmworkers and gardeners were men compared to 54 per cent in the economy as a whole. In 2021, male employment in the occupation increased to 70 per cent.

Considerably more farmworkers and gardeners than workers across all occupations are of older age (over 50 years old) (Figure 5). In 2021, the share of farmworkers and gardeners aged 50 to 64 years was 39 per cent (compared to 28 per cent across all occupations). Ageing is much more serious challenge in agriculture than in other sectors.

Figure 5: Farmworkers and gardeners’ workforce by age (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Despite the seasonal nature of agriculture work, relatively few farmworkers and gardeners have temporary or part time contracts (see Figure 6). 

Figure 6: Contract and hiring trends for farmworkers and gardeners (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Skill needs and future trends

Farmers and gardeners involves significant level of manual tasks, highly exceeding the average of all occupations. It also involves smaller exposure to digital technologies. There seems to be a gap between upskilling needs and access to training - work and processes in agriculture are evolving fast, also because of new digital technologies, and not all workers are well equipped to cope with the change. 

Figure 7: Skills, training needs and job perception of farmworkers and gardeners (in %)

Source: European Skills and Jobs Survey. Microdata. Own calculations. 
Unless stated otherwise, it is a share of people reporting that a task/skill is part of their job.
*Always or often
** Share of workers reporting these needs to a great or moderate extent.

Cedefop’s Skills forecast provides a detailed view of the future demand for farmworkers and gardeners. Overall, employment for farmworkers and gardeners is expected to decline markedly over the period 2022 to 2035. This means that, compared with 2022, there will be about 2.4 million less farmworker and gardener jobs.

Future employment will decline in most of the countries analysed, but its level of reduction varies country by country. Figure 8 compares the employment growth experienced over the relatively recent past to that projected to take place in the future. Employment growth is forecast to occur in the future only in Spain and Latvia. Both countries exhibited employment decline in the past. Employment grew in the past decade only in five countries (Belgium, France, Hungary, Slovakia, and Sweden).

Figure 8: Past and expected future employment trend of farmers and gardeners

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Cedefop Skills Forecast.
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size. LFS data for MT are not available. 

New job creation or loss is, however, not the main driver behind the job demand. Most job openings are a result of people leaving them for other opportunities, or those leaving the labour market completely (retirements; parent leave, etc.). The replacement demand of farmworkers and gardeners exceeds much the forecast  job loss;  2.4 million jobs lost vs 4.2 million available following the replacement demand (Figure 9). Meeting this future demand may be challenging given the level of unattractiveness of the agricultural sector to young people who enter the labour market (see below). 

Overall, when the forecast job loss is added to the replacement demand, an estimated 1.8 million job openings for farmworkers and gardeners will need to be filled in between 2022 and 2035.

Figure 9: Future job openings for farmworkers and gardeners (000s)

Source: Future job openings indicator based on the Cedefop Skills Forecast. Own calculations.

More than half of farmworkers and gardeners (56 per cent) held medium-level qualifications in 2021 (i.e. at ISCED levels 3 or 4). This is not projected to change much by 2035. The share of workers with low levels of qualification (ISCED level 2 or lower) is projected to fall from 33 per cent in 2022 to 21 per cent in 2035, while the share of highly qualified workers (i.e. those qualified at ISCED level 5 and over) is projected to increase from 12 per cent to 20 per cent over the same period.
 

Looking forward

Employment for farmworkers and gardeners are forecast to shrink markedly in the future. However, the replacement needs are quite large. The skillsets of these new workers will be impacted by sustainable development goals and technological developments in the agricultural sector. Work in this sector may be physically demanding and seasonal, for which these workers will need specific skills and training.

• The agricultural sector is experiencing technological change and digitalisation in multiple ways. For example, precision farming involves the use of data, sensors and other technologies to optimise the use of resources such as water, fertilizers and pesticides. By improving yields and reducing waste, this technology can help farmers and gardeners to be more efficient and precise in their work. Precision farming is considered to have high potential to increase farmers’ income and intrinsic/extrinsic quality of agricultural production while decreasing its negative environmental effects (Finger et al, 2019). Precision farming tools tend to be adopted by young and educated farmers. It also requires relatively high initial investments in equipment and development of workers’ skills (Vecchio et al, 2020). The use of drones can be helpful in monitoring large scale forestry and agriculture for coverage planning (Liang & Delahaye, 2019). The use of automated machinery like autonomous tractors, and robotic harvesters is also becoming more common in agriculture. In addition to tasks that are repetitive and easily automatable, there is a steady increase in more complex tasks that can be undertaken by machines. Automation and robots help perform standardised tasks like ploughing and combine harvesting, but also non-standardised tasks like fruit picking, selective weeding, and crop sensing (Marinoudi et al, 2019). Likewise, advanced analytics have the potential to address agricultural supply chain shocks which may be caused by extreme weather events, pandemics or geopolitical events (McKinsey & Company, 2022). Improved data collection has also become a crucial part of the forestry inventory investigation system, as it enables a more precise monitoring of large areas (Gao et al, 2022).
• Agriculture is a sector targetted much by the ambitions of the European Green Deal (EGD) (2019). Farmworkers and gardeners will need to acquire skills and competences related to sustainable practices, climate-smart agriculture and environmental conservation. Sustainable practices include agroforestry (i.e. a multifunctional land use system combining agriculture with trees and livestock), precision farming and precision livestock farming. Furthermore, the application of circular economy principles to  improve the sustainability of European food systems is one of the central aims of the Farm to Fork Strategy (2020). The Strategy aims to ensure that the food chain has a neutral or positive environmental impact, that everyone has access to sufficient and nutritious food, and that food remains affordable while generating fairer economic returns in the value chain. For farmworkers this means up- and reskilling to sustainable production methods, making use of nature-based solutions, and reducing or optimising the use of pesticides and fertilisers. Nature-based solutions have multiple applications for soil health and moisture, carbon mitigation, water quality protections, and biodiversity enhancement in agriculture. Such solutions encompass both new technologies as well as traditional methods (Miralles-Wilhelm, 2021). For instance, biorefineries can increase the processing of biomass into a variety of bio-based products. Through the use forestry and agricultural feedstocks, they present new opportunities for economic development in rural communities (European Commission, 2021). There is also growing interest in traditional methods that may produce more environmentally sustainable solutions, such as grazing. Climate change continues to have a deteriorating impact on soil quality, which requires improvements in plant compositional changes and careful animal and soil nutrient management that can be applied through careful grazing practices (Ghaharamani et al, 2019).  
• The use of use of agricultural waste has a high potential for bioenergy production in circular production models. Thus, agricultural farms arise as an important link in industrial symbiosis models. These combine technology and sustainable approaches and involve different companies or parts of the same company which collaborate to achieve a smarter use of resources and waste, for example by utilising waste of by-products from one activity or firm as an input for another one.  Recently, the European Commission laid the foundations for an industrial strategy that aims to facilitate the roll-out of such business models.
• Agriculture has been largely responsible for biodiversity losses in the recent past due to land-use changes, monoculture, pesticides and agrochemicals. This means this sector plays a key role in the restoration and flourishment of future biodiversity (Garske et al, 2021). The EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (2020a) seeks to incentivise farmers to turn to agroecosystems that are based on precision agriculture, organic farming, agroecology, agro-forestry, low-intensive permanent grassland and stricter animal welfare standards.
• The agricultural sector is very much dependent on migrant labour. One of the starkest reminders of that was the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the availability and health of the agricultural workforce. This has had implications for agricultural production, food security, causing market disturbances (Tougeron & Hance, 2021). The demographic crisis of European agriculture is often cited as an obstacle to the full speed implementation of new technologies and production models – the agricultural workforce is ageing, and it seems to be difficult to attract young people to the sector. The future of European agriculture will depend on adequate policy frameworks to ensure that young people from farming backgrounds as well as newcomers with farming ambitions are provided with sufficient support and access to finance (Sutherland, 2023). This will help meeting the large replacement demand need for this occupation.

Farmworkers and gardeners will be at the forefront of countering climate change with sustainable development models and increasingly complex technologies. Equipping these workers with updated and new skills is important for achieving the goals of the green and digital transitions. Across Europe, education and training for farmworkers varies widely between countries, ranging from vocational education to higher education. However, most farmworkers and gardeners typically enter the workforce with vocational qualification at ISCED levels 3 and 4. According to Cedefop in 2019 and 2020, 58 per cent of farmworkers and gardeners aged 15-34 reported possession of a vocational qualification.

Meeting future skill needs requires efforts to make sure that initial vocational education and training (IVET) attracts an adequate number of students to farm working and gardening jobs, so that the large replacement need is successfully met. An example of such an initial vocational education programme for the occupation of arborists in Sweden is presented below. There is also a need to consider continuing vocational education and training (CVET) so that existing workers are reskilled and upskilled to meet the skills challenge posed by the adoption of new technologies (such as precision agriculture and the use of sensors) and sustainability concerns (e.g., the need to use sustainable sources of energy, environmentally friendly fertilisers, etc.)

With respect to IVET, apprenticeships can be a useful means to provide new training required to become a farmworker and attract young people to this occupation. There is now a wealth of research which demonstrates the effiectiveness with which apprenticeships can equip people with the skills required by the labour market (cf. Cedefop’s research on the effective delivery of apprenticeships). Unfortunately, agriculture is not among those sectors in which apprenticeships are usually conducted. Although agricultural sectoral councils or chambers are involved in the governance of apprenticeship in European countries (such as Luxembourg, Latvia, or the Netherlands), a study conducted in Latvia revealed that the  participation in apprenticeship schemes in this sector was limited (Cedefop, 2021). In Austria, the Vocational Training Act for Agriculture and Forestry (LFBAG) regulates around 15 apprenticeship occupations, which include beekeeping, rural farm and household management, horticulture and winemaking as well as field vegetable cultivation. Each of these occupations has a specific training profile, which can accommodate multiple certifications. For instance, in the winemaker occupation, the skilled worker can acquire competences through multiple pathways (e.g. apprenticeship, education and training provided by agricultural technical schools,completing a skilled worker course, etc.) (Facharbeiter Weinbau).

The European Alliance for Apprenticeships aims to provide support to countries and sectors looking to improve and expand the provision of apprenticeships. Federations related to agriculture signing joint pledges to support this Alliance include the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions and FoodDrinkEurope, and the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism and HOTREC (Confederation Syndicate of European Trade Unions, 2016).

Equally important alongside initial education in farmwork and gardening is the continuous development of skills on various topics throughout the career trajectory (e.g. from innovative technologies to regulatory frameworks). The variety of skills development is reflected in the diversity of European projects aimed at skills agenda in agriculture. SmartAgriHubs is an example of a large-scale project, which unites 164 partners in the agri-sector to develop and adopt digital solutions within the ecosystem of 140 Digital Innovation Hubs. The project aims to deliver at least 80 new digital solutions to the European agri-sector, including the digitalisation of over 2 million farms. The project focuses on digitalisation efforts across five agri-food sectors: arable farming, livestock, vegetable, fruits and aquaculture.

The EU-FarmBook is a project which builds on previous projects’ materials by compiling best practices for farmers and foresters. The project seeks to streamline digital knowledge exchange by creating a common European database on the topics of Forestry, Livestock, Crop Farming, Environment, Society, and Economics. The knowledge database consists of videos, audio material, presentations and written texts collected from previous skills and knowledge development related projects in the EU.

The FIELDS project aims to develop a sectoral skills strategy to help foster the green transition in European agriculture through transnational collaboration between stakeholders like businesses, research institutes, workers’ representatives and educational institutions. FIELDS also operates a database of educational opportunities (courses, trainings and degrees) at the intersection of the digital and green transitions and agriculture in Europe.

In addition, the AGRISMART project seeks to enhance the continuous education and training in farm management in particular in the integration of digital technologies for smarter, resource-efficient and more competitive agricultural sector. Therefore, the project addresses VET and Work-Based Learning schemes for upskilling in digital competences, as the sector has a strong practical experience component. One of the outcomes of this project is the modular curriculum that can be used by VET providers, as well as farmers to develop their digital and  climate-smart skills. The learning units foreseen by the project are divided under Common Agricultural Policy, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Water Use Management, Sustainable Weed and Pest Management, Agriculture 4.0, and Data for Sustainable Production.

How to cite this publication:

Cedefop (2023). Farmworkers and gardeners: skills opportunities and challenges. Skills intelligence data insight.

Further reading

Barros, M. V., Salvador, R., de Francisco, A. C., Moro Piekarski, C. (2020) ‘Mapping of research lines on circular economy practices in agriculture: From waste to energy’, in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 131

Beręsewicz, M. and Pater, R. (2021). Inferring job vacancies from online job advertisements, Luxembourg: Publications Office, 2021. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-working-papers/-/ks-tc-20-008

Cedefop (2023). Skills in transition: the way to 2035

Cedefop et al. (2021). ‘Apprenticeship governance and in-company training: where labour market and education meet: Cedefop community of apprenticeship experts: short papers’. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Cedefop working paper; No 3. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/065622

Confederation Syndicate of European Trade Unions (2016). A European quality framework for apprenticeships: A European Trade Union proposal.

European Commission (2020). A Farm to Fork Strategy. COM(2020) 381 final

European Commission (2020a). EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. COM(2020) 380 final

European Commission (2021). EU Biorefinery Outlook to 2030: Studies on support to research and innovation policy in the area of bio-based products and services. Publications Office of the EU

Finger, R., Swinton, S.M., El Benni, N., Walter, A. (2019). ‘Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and the Environment’, Annual Review of Resource Economics, Vol. 11(1)

Gao, W., Qiu, Q., Yuan, C., Shen, X., Cao, F., Wang, G., Wang, G. (2022). ‘Forestry Big Data: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis’, in Forests, Vol. 13(10)

Garske, B., Bau, A., Ekardt, F. (2021). ‘Digitalisation and AI in European Agriculture: A Strategy for Achieving Climate and Biodiversity Targets?’, in Sustainability, Vol. 13(9)

Ghahramani, A., Howden, S.M., del Prado, A., Thomas, D.T., Moore, A.,D., Ji, B. Ates, S. (2019). ‘Climate Change Impact, Adaptation, and Mitigation in Temperate Grazing Systems: A Review’, Sustainability, Vol. 11(24)

Jha, K., Doshi, A., Patel, P. Shah, M. (2019). ‘A comprehensive review on automation in agriculture using artificial intelligence’, in Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, Vol. 2, p. 1-12.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aiia.2019.05.004.

Liang, M., Delahaye, D. (2019). ‘Drone Fleet Deployment Strategy for Large Scale Agriculture and Forestry Surveying’, conference proceeding, 2019 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Auckland, NZ, October 27-30, 2019

Marinoudi, V., Sorensen, C. G., Pearson, S., Bochtis, D. (2019). ‘Robotics and labour in agriculture. A context consideration’, in Biosystems Engineering, Vol. 184, pp. 111-121

McKinsey & Company (2022). ‘How advanced analytics can address agricultural supply chain shocks’, in McKinsey & Company : Agriculture Insights, article, published 14 April 2022

Miralles-Wilhelm (2021). Nature-based solutions in agriculture – sustainable management and conservation of land, water and biodiversity. FAO and the Nature Conservancy: Virginia

Napierala, J.; Kvetan, V. and Branka, J. (2022). Assessing the representativeness of online job advertisements. Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop working paper, No 17. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/807500

Ramil Brick, E. S., Holland, J., Anagnostou, D. E., Brown, K., Desmulliez, M. P. Y. (2022). ‘A review of agroforestry, precision agriculture, and precision livestock farming – The case for a data-driven agroforestry strategy’, Frontiers in Sensors, Vol. 3

Sutherland, L.-A. (2023). ‘‘Who do we want our ‘new generation’ of farmers to be? The need for demographic reform in European agriculture’, in Agricultural and Food Economics, Vol. 11(3)

Tougeron, K., Hance, T. (2021). ‘Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on apple orchards in Europe’, in Agricultural Systems, Vol. 190

Vecchio, Y., Agnusdei, G. P., Miglietta, P. P., Capitanio, F. (2020). ‘Adoption of Precision Farming Tools: The Case of Italian Farmers’, in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 17(3)