Employment conditions in the South African farming sector remain robust, well above long-term average levels. And this is an important issue to emphasise, as I have noted recently, because headlines suggest that farmers have been struggling to find workers in this sector since the intensification of the immigration discourse in South Africa.
Indeed, if one looks at the data, in the second quarter of 2026, the farming sector saw a mild decline in employment. But this is broadly aligned with slowing seasonal farm activity, not necessarily other issues. Still, the number of jobs remained at reasonably better levels. For example, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2026, released on August 11 2026 by Statistics South Africa, shows that the farming sector employed 944,000 people in the second quarter, down 2% quarter-on-quarter. But this is up by 4% from the same period last year, and well above the average of 799,000 jobs in this sector.
If we zoom in from a provincial perspective, most provinces experienced a mild employment decline from the first quarter of the year, except for the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Limpopo. The annual uptick in employment (up 4% year-on-year) shows we are generally in a year of agricultural abundance in fruits, vegetables, and various field crops, all of which are labour intensive. Listen to the podcast for more.
