The sector’s share of total employment in Brazil was 26.85% in the first three months of the year
The number of people working in Brazilian agribusiness reached 28.6 million individuals in the first quarter of 2024, a record result in the historical series started in 2012 by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea), at Esalq/USP, in partnership with the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA).
The sector’s share of total employment in Brazil was 26.85% in the first three months of the year, compared to 26.67% in the same period in 2023.
According to Cepea, the population employed in agribusiness grew by 3% (or approximately 827 thousand people) from January to March 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, an increase that was higher than that observed for Brazil, which was 2.3% (or approximately 2.38 million people).
According to researchers from Cepea/CNA, “this increase was mainly related to the 9.9% increase in the number of workers working in agribusiness, the segment with the largest number of workers, who are allocated to the various activities that serve those in the input, agricultural and agribusiness segments, which include everything from transportation, storage and trade to legal, administrative and accounting services”. Furthermore, the population employed in agribusiness increased by 3.4% (or 149,179 people).
The increase in the population employed in agribusiness in the first quarter of 2024 was driven by employees, especially those with formal employment contracts (evidencing an increase in the formalization of employment), by workers with higher levels of education (a trend observed in the sector since the beginning of the historical series) and by women (there was an increase in female participation in the period).