Only agriculture sees income rise in a decade

In a period of ten years, the average income of work in Brazil only grew for the sector that involves agriculture. This is what data from the Pnad Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) indicate.

In the second quarter of 2022, the average real income of the employed population was estimated at R$ 1,690 in agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture activities.

The value is 12.7% higher than the same range in 2013 (R$ 1,500). That is, there was a gain of R$ 190, on average, in the decade. The calculations take inflation into account.

Meanwhile, the other ten activities analyzed in the Pnad showed relative stability or a drop in income in the same comparison.

The survey is published by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and covers both the formal and informal labor markets. In other words, Pnad portrays jobs with a formal contract and CNPJ to the popular odd jobs.

The positive variation in rural income is largely associated with the appreciation of agricultural commodities in the pandemic, says economist Vitor Hugo Miro, professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics at UFC (Federal University of Ceará).

“Income grew with commodities. The appreciation of grains such as corn and soybeans brought reflexes to the job market”, he says.

Another factor that explains the performance is the more intense productivity gain in agriculture compared to industry and services, says economist Ely José de Mattos, professor at the PUCRS Business School (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul).

“From the point of view of productivity, agriculture responded much more than services and industry.”

Felippe Serigati, professor and researcher at FGV Agro, agrees that the sector has become more productive and dynamic with the incorporation of technology.

“There was a combination. On the supply side, we have a sector that has become more sophisticated and hired more qualified labor. And, on the other hand, the country has faced heated demand in recent years, in which China accounts for a fraction important, resulting in a more heated job market, with a higher remuneration”, he says.

Serigati also points out that the agriculture sector has proved to be quite resilient in the last ten years, being able to go through a series of turmoil: recession, truck drivers’ strike and pandemic.

“None of this had a great effect. Agriculture has a great interface with the external sector, which has a huge demand for products that Brazil is able to produce”, he says.

Joni Ricardo Gonçalves, 37, decided to invest about six years ago in the production of foods such as lettuce, arugula and watercress in the Santa Catarina municipality of Araquari (168 km from Florianópolis). He works with his wife and a nephew.

Before joining agriculture, Gonçalves worked at a refrigeration company that closed its doors. To change the area, he had to seek qualifications in courses and invest in the approximately 2,500 square meters of greenhouses.

The perspective in terms of income, he says, is positive. “And in terms of quality of life, the situation has improved a lot”, she reports.

Rafael Mesquita also found a new way of life in agriculture. He moved in 2016 to the countryside, in São Lourenço da Serra, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, to create an agroecological production, with vegetables, eggs and some fruits, within an agroforestry system. With other farmers in the area, he sells baskets of organic food.

“I think this change was good, more than financially, for the family’s quality of life. Financially, it’s a construction process like anywhere else, but the quality of life is much better”, he says.

Serigati, a researcher at FGV Agro, believes that the income generated by the sector also boosts the economies in which the market is inserted.

In 2020, Vinícius Granato, 43, decided to leave the mining sector to join agribusiness in a Brazilian multinational specializing in plant nutrition, located in Uberaba, in the Minas Gerais triangle. The most attractive salary, 30% higher, was one of the main factors that weighed on the decision to change jobs.

“I also decided to change because it is a strong and growing segment, which did not even suffer from the pandemic. The choice was based on the scope of work, in the expectation of a career.”

In the average of all the activities researched in Pnad, the income from the main job was calculated in R$ 2,575 in the second quarter of this year.

It is the lowest level for the period from April to June in the historical series, which started in 2012. There was a decrease of approximately 3.5% compared to the second quarter of 2013 (R$ 2,667).

Before the pandemic, economists recall, income already signaled difficulties to move forward amid a succession of turmoil that hit the Brazilian economy.

With the arrival of Covid-19, activities more dependent on direct contact with customers were shaken by restrictions in urban centers. To complicate matters, the recent surge in inflation has also brought down wages in real terms.

Falling accommodation and food

Among the activities surveyed by the IBGE, the biggest drop in income in ten years was registered by accommodation and food.

In the second quarter of 2022, income in the sector was estimated at R$ 1,713. The amount is equivalent to a loss of 14% compared to the same range in 2013 (R$ 1,992).

“The accommodation and food sector suffered a lot in the decade. There was the 2015 crisis, then the pandemic. It is an activity that depends a lot on the population’s income”, analyzes Miro, from UFC.

Although it has grown, the average income from agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture (R$ 1,690) is still the second lowest among the segments surveyed by the IBGE. It only surpassed that of domestic services (R$ 1,034) in the second quarter of 2022.

At the top end of the list, the highest income was recorded in information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and administrative activities. The amount in the second quarter of this year was estimated at R$3,809.

For Miro, improving income in general requires efforts that go beyond job creation. The country also needs to advance in the qualification of the workforce, says the professor.

“It is not enough just to allow access to schooling. It is extremely important to qualify the workforce in a more professional way”, he evaluates.

“We are recovering jobs, both informal and formal, but the level of wages is not being restored. People are taking on jobs with lower income after the difficulties in the pandemic”, he adds.

Mattos, from PUCRS, also draws attention to the need for advances in education. According to him, the improvement in the area is necessary for income growth in the long term.

“Education has to come first,” he says. “Of course, other adjustments are also needed on issues such as simplification of the tax matrix and infrastructure.”