AI Analysis: Temporary foreign workers in the agriculture sector, by category of farm revenue

Executive Summary

Temporary foreign worker (TFW) jobs in Canadian agriculture grew 57.2% from 48,585 in 2016 to 76,372 in 2024, peaking at 81,517 in 2023, reflecting sustained and accelerating reliance on this labour source. The data is heavily right-skewed, with a small number of high-revenue farm categories and industries driving the majority of TFW employment. Larger farms by revenue show consistently higher and more stable TFW usage, while smaller farms exhibit significant year-to-year volatility.

Key Findings

• TFW jobs in Canadian agriculture increased by 27,787 (+57.2%) between 2016 and 2024, peaking at 81,517 jobs in 2023 before a modest decline to 76,372 in 2024.
• Growth accelerated notably from 2020 onward, with the largest single-year jump occurring in 2021 at +17.8% year-over-year, likely driven by post-pandemic agricultural labour demand.
• The dataset is strongly right-skewed, with a median of 552 far below the mean of 3,531 and a maximum of 81,517, indicating that a small number of farm revenue categories or industries account for a disproportionate share of TFW employment.
• The standard deviation of 9,594 — nearly three times the mean — underscores the wide variability in TFW usage across different farm sizes and agricultural industries.
• The 'Less than $100,000' farm revenue category is the most volatile segment, with a coefficient of variation of 50.2%, while larger, higher-revenue farms show more stable and consistently high TFW reliance.
• The dataset spans 7 agricultural industries and 7 farm revenue categories, enabling multi-dimensional analysis across three statistical measures: jobs filled, number of workers, and number of operations employing TFWs.
• Data is national in scope with no provincial breakdown, covering 2016–2024 annually, and was last updated by Statistics Canada (Table 32100220) on May 7, 2026.