Author: Ben Slatter
Labour use in Australian horticulture: Analysis of survey results,
2022–23
This report presents the latest estimates of farm labour use and workforce characteristics drawn from the ABARES Horticulture Survey
Labour is a key input to Australian agriculture and there is significant interest from government, industry stakeholders and research organisations in understanding whether labour markets are meeting the needs of the Australian farm sector. This interest was heightened by the disruptions to the Australian labour market during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued through the post-pandemic readjustment.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey indicates that the Australian agriculture sector employed 277,000 people on average over the four quarters to August 2024, with the horticulture industry (comprising nursery and floriculture production, mushroom and vegetable growing, and fruit and tree nut growing) accounting for over one-fifth of workers. However, the Labour Force Survey only collects an employed person’s industry which is their main job, while short-term non-residents are outside its scope, leading to an underestimation of total agricultural employment due to the significant number of overseas workers employed on farms each year. Other publicly available data sources also have limitations on coverage and detail, as outlined in Australian agricultural workforce: Stocktake of data sources.
ABARES regularly surveys farmers about their labour use (including Australian residents and overseas workers). In 2023, data describing the use of labour on Australian horticulture farms and the profile of farm workers were collected between June and September through the ABARES Horticulture Survey, via telephone interviews conducted on behalf of ABARES by Lighthouse Data Collection. The survey results for 2022–23 are based on a weighted sample of 2,303 horticulture farms across Australia, selected by region and farm size to be representative of the total population of 9,725 farms. This excludes surveyed nursery and floriculture producers to allow for direct comparison with previous surveys.
Results from ABARES’ Horticulture Survey are presented alongside this publication using a data visualisation product. Users can select from a range of region options to observe trends in horticulture farm labour use and workforce characteristics from 2019–20 to 2022–23.
The PowerBI dashboard may not meet accessibility requirements. For information about the content of this dashboard contact ABARES.
- Labour use in Australian agriculture, 2021-22
- Labour use in Australian agriculture, 2019-20 and 2020-21
- Labour use in Australian agriculture, 2018-19
If you have difficulty accessing these files, please email info.ABARES@aff.gov.au for assistance.