🧑‍🌾 High yields, low headcounts

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the Brazil Agro newsletter! If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach us at [email protected] 

Agro jobs are less and less on farms

Brazil’s agribusiness sector employed 28 million people in 2024, the highest number in over a decade. But while more Brazilians are working in the sector, farms themselves are employing fewer people, and agribusiness is occupying a smaller share of the country’s overall workforce.

The figures are part of a new report from Cepea, a research center at the University of São Paulo’s agriculture school, in partnership with the National Agriculture Confederation (CNA). The study tracks employment across the entire agribusiness supply chain, from farming and livestock to associated services and industrial activity.

Even in a year marked by extreme weather that disrupted harvests, employment in agribusiness still grew 1% compared to 2023. But that growth lagged behind the broader economy, where overall employment rose 2.6%.

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