3.17 Agricultural Labour ( Table 8)
Chart 22: Agricultural Labour, June 2011
On the 1 st June 2011, there were 67,806 people working on agricultural holdings. Working occupiers made up 41% of the total workers (split 14% full-time and 26% part-time). A further 19% of the total workers were occupiers' spouses (with the majority of these working part-time). Regular staff accounted for 30% of total workers (of which more were working full-time than part-time). Casual and seasonal workers represented 10% of the total.
Between 2010 and 2011 the number of people working in agriculture remained unchanged at 67,806 people.
Notable decreases were seen for:
- Regular full time staff, which decreased by 767 staff (5.4%) to 13,469. This decrease was driven by staff in both the male and female categories.
- Working occupiers, down 329 (1.2%) to 27,513, although those occupiers working full-time did increase by 215 (2.3%) to 9,714.
- Working spouses, down 64 (0.5%) to 13,045, mostly driven by a decrease in spouses working less than half time (down 96 (1.0%) to 9,114 spouses).
Notable increases were seen for:
- Casual and seasonal staff, up 1,047 (17.8%) to 6,945.
- Regular part time staff, up 249 (3.8%) to 6,834. This increase was particularly driven by an increase in male part-time staff, up 243 (5.7%) to 4,487.
It should be noted that some of the annual changes in labour may have been affected by changes in the census form. Inclusion of EC Farm Structure Survey ( FSS) questions on the June 2010 census (and the associated redesign of the survey form) led to some labour sections either not being reported correctly or being missed out by survey respondents. In 2011 the census form reverted back to its usual design and it appears, for some labours categories, totals are falling back in line to those reported in 2009.
Also, there was an additional change to the 2011 census form, adding in a category for non working occupiers and spouses. "Working occupier" and "working spouse" totals for 2011 do not include the non working categories. It may be possible in the past that non working occupiers and spouses were recorded under the "Less than half time" categories and therefore included in the total working occupier and spouse totals. It is reassuring, however, to see that changes in occupiers and spouses are relatively minor between 2010 and 2011, given the changes to this part of the form.
Looking at longer-term trends:
There was a decrease of 4,303 (6.3%) in the number of people working on agricultural holdings from 68,816 in 2001 to 64,513 in 2008, followed by an increase of 3,293 (5.1%) between 2008 and 2011 to 67,806. These totals need to be treated with some caution as they include differing trends for full-time and part-time occupiers, spouses and regular employees.
Chart 23 shows similar trends for working occupiers and regular employees, with a general decline between 2001 and 2008 followed by increases up to 2010. Compared to 2001, the number of working occupiers is now 1,103 (3.9%) lower and the number of regular employees is 2,468 (10.8%) lower. The number of working spouses increased in the early part of the decade, followed by more recent decreases. Compared to 2001, the number of working spouses is now 795 (5.7%) lower. The number of casual and seasonal staff employed on 1 st June nearly doubled between 2001 and 2011 up 3,356 (93.5%) to 6,945.
Chart 23: Agricultural Labour Trends, 2001 to 2011
Chart 24 provides a further breakdown of trends in working occupiers. It shows that between 2001 and 2008 there was a decrease in full-time occupiers of 2,148 (18.5%) to 9,491. Numbers have since been broadly level since, standing at 9,714 in 2011. The number of part-time occupiers working "half-time or more" has been fairly constant since 2001, whereas there has been an increase of the number of occupiers working "less than half-time", especially since 2008 where numbers have increased by 1,195 (9.4%) to 13,908. The peak of 14,222 "less than half-time occupiers" occupiers in 2010 may be an effect of adding the Farm Structure Survey questions and altering the design of the form for the one year.
Chart 25 shows that in 2011, most spouses worked less than half-time on agricultural holdings, representing 9,114 (69.9%) of the total.
Chart 24: Occupiers, Trends 2001 to 2011
Chart 25: Spouses, Trends 2001 to 2011
Charts 26 and 27 provide a further breakdown of trends in regular employed staff. They show that the overall trends are almost entirely driven by trends in full time male staff, which decreased by 3,153 (21.9%) between 2001 and 2008, before increasing by 561 (5.0%) between 2008 and 2011.
Chart 26: Regular Male Staff, Trends 2001 to 2011
Chart 27: Regular Female Staff, Trends 2001 to 2011
Chart 28: Regular Staff, June 2011
On the 1 st June 2011, there were 20,303 regular staff working on agricultural holdings. Around a quarter (24%) were members of occupiers' families and a further 18% were partners in the holding. The remaining staff were other hired staff (59%), the majority of whom were males.