All posts by : admin

Even before COVID-19 hit, labour availability in agriculture had been a significant challenge, including resolving shortages and designing safe working conditions. In Australia, a patchwork of visa programs, missing or incomplete labour statistics and a general ‘just-in-time’ approach to labour sourcing has long created challenges for agribusinesses at every stage along the supply chain.

Labour shortages in agriculture result in lost economic earnings from farmers via unpicked crops and wasted food. Shortages also drive cycles of environmental misuse and unsustainable land management practices.

In some circumstances, shortages generate a shadow labour market, where vulnerable people are exploited. Though individual farmers, agribusinesses or retailers may be unaware, their social licence can be at stake, potentially placing them in an impossible situation.

In 2019, during the peak of the harvest season, around 63,000 casual and contract labourers were granted visas to work on horticultural farms. By contrast, in 2020, the supply of overseas labour declined significantly and working holiday maker and seasonal worker visas fell by 48 per cent.

Horticulture has been the hardest hit by labour shortages. Horticulture in Australia is the third largest and fastest growing sector in agriculture, and over 95 per cent of its labour force is casual.

The CSIRO is investigating these cross-cutting labour issues in agriculture and land management to bring together researchers to focus research on the following areas.

1. Identifying or developing models and coordinated sector-level responses that can address farm and processor-level concerns about anticipated or experienced labour shortages.  The CSIRO are looking at what they can learn from other economic sectors that have similarly addressed issues around labour access and affordability, including mining, healthcare and construction.  There may also be unique, horticulture-specific gaps that could be met by additional, focused research efforts.
2. Assessing supply chain resiliency and supply chain vulnerability. The CSIRO are working together with retailers and major agribusinesses to analyse supply chain vulnerabilities to labour shortages.  Analysing sustainability frameworks, reporting protocols and agribusiness disclosure efforts allows us to accurately and meaningfully report on efforts to reduce social licence risk and elevate best practices across the supply chain.

Modelling the relationship between climate change and human migration, and how this affects the availability and affordability of Pacific Island labourers for Australian agribusinesses that depend on importing labour into Australia from abroad.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) indicates that improved seasonal conditions and higher production were key drivers of Australian broadacre farms using more workers in 2020–21 compared to 2018–19. Over this period, the average number of workers per farm (at peak labour use) increased or remained the same for all broadacre industries.

The impacts of COVID-19 on labour markets were less visible in the broadacre and dairy sectors (compared to the horticulture sector) because these farms typically use far fewer overseas workers. However, all farming industries have been affected by a general tightening of labour markets in Australia, with strong competition across the economy for Australian resident workers. ABARES survey data indicates that the percentage of overseas workers (excluding New Zealand residents) used on Australian broadacre and dairy farms at peak labour use in 2020–21 was minimal, decreasing from 3% in 2018–19. This remains well below the estimate for horticulture farms (around 28% or 40,300 overseas workers at peak in December 2020).

Labour is a key input to Australian agriculture and there is significant interest in understanding whether labour markets are meeting the needs of the Australian farm sector. This interest has recently been heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a reduction in the availability of farm workers from overseas and placed restrictions on the movement of people within Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) indicates that the Australian agriculture sector employed 239,000 people in 2021, with the horticulture and broadacre (livestock and cropping) industries accounting for most workers (more than 75%). The Census includes data about temporary residents and their workforce status on census night, but only for a single point in time. Given that overseas farm labour is typically seasonal or short-term in nature, the Census data underestimates 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 2022, data describing the use of labour on Australian horticulture farms and the profile of farm workers were collected through the ABARES Horticulture Survey. The labour information was collected between May and August 2022 through telephone surveys, conducted on behalf of ABARES by Lighthouse Data Collection. The survey results for 2021–22 are based on a weighted sample of 2,363 horticulture farms across Australia (including fruit, nut and vegetable growers), selected by region and farm size to be representative of the total population of 9,763 farms. Surveyed nursery and floriculture producers are excluded from these results to allow for direct comparison with previous surveys.

Survey results for broadacre and dairy farms are based on data collected in face-to-face farm interviews by ABARES in 2019 and 2021. The survey results for 2020–21 are based on a weighted sample of 1,182 farms, selected at the state and industry level to be representative of the total combined population of 55,071 farms.

The full report can be accessed at this link: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/labour/labour-use-2021#the-impact-of-covid19-on-the-horticulture-workforce

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) indicates that the decline in labour use from 2019–20 to 2021–22 reflects the widespread recruitment difficulty experienced by farms across Australia.

Around 57% of Australian horticulture farms had difficulty recruiting workers in 2021–22, with 41% of farms experiencing lots of difficulty and 16% experiencing some difficulty. Victoria had the highest percentage of farms experiencing recruitment difficulty (70%) and South Australia had the lowest percentage (48%).

Many factors contributed to the recruitment difficulty, such as constraints on accessing overseas labour and a significant fall in temporary visa holders after international border closures, restrictions on interstate movement of farm workers, high labour costs due to COVID-19 quarantine requirements, and a general tightening of labour markets.

When looking ahead to 2022–23, around 68% of Australian horticulture farms are expecting no change to the number of workers used on farm. Around 22% of farms are expecting to use more workers and 10% are expecting to use fewer workers.

Fewer workers were paid using piece rates in 2021–22

The percentage of Australian horticulture workers paid using piece rates in 2021–22 was 24% and the remaining 76% of workers were paid using hourly wages. This is a fall from the 33% of workers estimated to have been paid using piece rates in 2019–20.

Workers on piece rates are paid based on the amount of horticulture products a worker has picked, packed, pruned or made. Tasmania had the highest percentage of workers paid using piece rates (40%) in 2021–22. Employee payment arrangements vary between regions, reflecting the types of crops produced and regional labour market conditions.

The decrease in workers paid using piece rates from 2019–20 to 2021–22 partially reflects changes made to piece rate arrangements under the Horticulture Award, which came into effect in late April 2022 and included a new minimum wage guarantee for each day.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) indicates that Broadacre farms are the largest employers in Australian agriculture.

ABARES survey data indicates that broadacre farms used a total of 196,700 workers at peak labour use in 2020–21, increasing from 178,300 workers in 2018–19. The largest broadacre farms (those earning receipts more than $1 million) accounted for 90% of this increase in workers.

Most workers used on broadacre farms at peak labour use in 2020–21 were high-skilled workers (38%), managers (24%) or machine operators (16%), with the remainder occupying semi-skilled, unskilled, administrative or professional roles such as lawyers and tradespeople. Broadacre farms include sheep, beef, cropping and mixed farms, totalling around 57% of Australian farm businesses.

Labour use on broadacre farms tends to be relatively stable from year to year compared with horticulture farms, reflecting the structure of these businesses and the roles typically performed by workers. Broadacre farms make greater use of family members and local workers who are typically employed as full time or part time workers throughout the year and employ relatively few contractors and casual staff. The wide geographical spread of the broadacre sector across Australia also means peak labour use periods such as crop sowing and harvest are more variable than in the horticulture sector.

Australian dairy farms used a total of 22,000 workers at peak labour use in 2020–21, decreasing from 26,200 workers in 2018–19. This was mainly due to a decrease in the number of operating farms, a decrease in the number of domestic workers per farm (driven by an increase in the wages required to attract Australian workers and competitive labour markets), and a reduction in the availability of overseas workers over this period.

Most workers used on dairy farms during peak periods in 2020–21 were skilled workers (43%), managers (32%) or machine operators (19%). Dairy farms employ mostly Australian workers and total labour use is relatively consistent, with minimal monthly variation compared to broadacre and horticulture farms.