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.