Census shows further drop in England’s farmworkers

The agricultural workforce in England has experienced another year-on-year contraction with 5,000 fewer people working in the sector than in 2020.

Defra’s June Survey of Agriculture puts the number of people employed in agriculture at 297,000 on 1 June, a 1.4% drop on the 2020 figure of 302,000.

At the same point in 2019, there were 306,000 workers.

The biggest fall was in casual worker numbers, down 6.3% to 39,000 from 42,000.

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This is a trend that was seen between 2019 and 2020, too, with figures from the 2020 census revealing 4,000 fewer casual workers.

Farmers, business partners, directors and spouses account for 60% of the total workforce, but those numbers have dropped by 1.6%, to 179,000.

That drop has been solely in the numbers working part time, down by 3,000 to 85,000, with those working full time static, at 94,000.

But farms are now employing more regular part-time workers without links to the business – up 6.7% to 26,000. 

Salaried managers account for just 4% of the workforce, but there is an increase in their numbers, too, with a rise of 2% to 12,000.