OTTAWA
,
April 13, 2023
(press release)
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There were 276,977 employees in the agriculture sector in 2021, down 0.6% from 2020. Almost half of all agricultural workers were employed by the horticulture industry in 2021, led by greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production (+2.1% to 61,015), vegetable and melon (-3.1% to 35,028) and fruit and tree nut (+0.7% to 31,037) farms. Almost half (49.9%) of all employees in the agriculture sector in 2021 were seasonal employees. Over one-fifth of all seasonal employees worked at greenhouse, nursery and floriculture operations (21.9%). Farms in Ontario hired the most employees (79,382) in 2021, down 0.6% from a year earlier. Quebec followed with 66,424 employees in 2021, 1.5% fewer compared with a year earlier. Following two years of declines, the number of agricultural workers in British Columbia rose 2.0% in 2021 from a year earlier to 34,934. More temporary foreign workers were employed in agriculture sector in 2021 The agriculture sector employed 60,992 temporary foreign workers in 2021, up 10.6% from a year earlier. This was the largest increase since 2016, after a year marked by challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jobs held by temporary foreign workers accounted for almost one-quarter (24.3%) of all agriculture jobs in Canada in 2021. Just over four-fifths of all temporary foreign workers came from Mexico (44.1%), Guatemala (24.1%) or Jamaica (14.8%). There were 3,386 more temporary foreign workers from Guatemala in 2021 compared with a year earlier, up 30.0%, which is the largest increase among the countries who contributed to this vital pool of labour. Over two in five (42.3%) temporary foreign workers were employed in the agriculture sector in Ontario (25,822 people), with just over half (51.7%) working in greenhouse, nursery and floriculture operations.
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