AI Analysis: Employees in the agriculture sector, and agricultural operations with at least one employee, by category of farm revenue

Executive Summary

Canada's agriculture sector employed approximately 281,000 workers in 2024, reflecting a broadly stable workforce over the 2016–2024 period despite a peak of 282,411 employees in 2018. The most notable structural shift has been a consistent 15% growth in full-time employment (from 90,551 to 103,948), widening the gap between full-time and part-time workers. Employment is heavily concentrated in higher-revenue farm categories, producing a right-skewed distribution where a small number of large operations account for a disproportionate share of total agricultural jobs.

Key Findings

• Total agricultural employees across Canada reached 280,991 in 2024, down slightly from a peak of 282,411 in 2018 but up from 270,513 in 2016, indicating long-term sector stability.
• Full-time employment grew consistently by approximately 15% over the study period, rising from 90,551 in 2016 to 103,948 in 2024, and was the primary driver of overall workforce growth.
• Part-time employment was more volatile, dipping to a low of 37,228 in 2020 before recovering to around 40,000 by 2024, likely reflecting pandemic-era disruptions.
• The dataset's mean value (34,061) is nearly three times its median (11,402), confirming a strongly right-skewed distribution where large, high-revenue farm operations dominate employee counts.
• Farm revenue categories span from 'Less than $100,000' to '$2,000,000 and over', with small farms (under $100,000 revenue) recording just 6,362 employees in 2024 — the lowest value in the dataset — highlighting the employment dominance of large-scale operations.
• 27 data points were flagged as statistical outliers using the IQR method, with year-over-year changes exceeding 10% detected in several revenue categories, pointing to periods of rapid structural change in specific farm segments.
• The dataset is perfectly complete with all 315 expected records (9 years × 7 revenue categories × 5 statistics), providing a reliable and consistent basis for trend analysis across the full 2016–2024 period.