The FAOSTAT Employment indicators domain focuses on indicators related to employment in agrifood systems and rural areas. The data provides information on the employment in agrifood systems, status in employment, divisions of agriculture and hours worked of the people employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing and in rural areas by sex and age whenever possible. 

FAOSTAT updates the employment indicators yearly, using data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) database that contains a rich set of indicators from a wide range of topics related to labour statistics. It also disseminates five indicators on employment in agrifood systems (AFS) for the period 2000–2022 at the country, regional and global levels. 

Main findings:

• In 2022, nearly 1.3 billion people were employed in agrifood systems. Around two out of every five employed individuals worldwide worked in the agrifood sector.
• In Africa and Asia, approximately 70 percent of agrifood system employment is in agriculture, compared to 32–45 percent in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.
• Globally, non-agricultural agrifood system employment remained steady at around 13 percent between 2000 and 2022.
• In 2023, the agricultural sector (including forestry and fishing) employed 916 million people worldwide, accounting for 26.1 percent of total employment. Women made up 39.6 percent of the global agricultural workforce.
• The highest share of employment in agriculture in 2023 was observed in Africa (46 percent), and the lowest in Europe (5 percent).
• In most countries, the share of men and women working in agriculture as employees remained low, falling below 10 percent in 2023.
• Adults aged 25 to 54 years made up the majority of the rural labour force. However, a significant gender gap persists, with fewer women than men either employed or actively seeking work.
• In 2023, women employed in agriculture worked an average of 36.7 hours per week, compared to 41.2 hours per week for men.