Technology makes income grow in the field and informal work fall, points study

Since he started studying Agronomy at the State University of Londrina (PR), Gustavo Okano Alves Pinto, of 22 years, wanted to work in the digital area. In the second year of College, a professor introduced him to agronomy. She combines the knowledge of traditional Agronomy and a large number of data collected in the field in real time, and information about the past of the crops. With this, you can decide the best moment, for example, planting, spending less. "I realized that the traditional Agronomy tune was pretty beat," recalls Okano. From then on, he started looking for courses and stages parallel to College to become an agronomist. Today, about to finish college, believes that with this extra qualification you will be able to get a job with starting salary up to 25% larger than a traditional agronomist. "Agronomy digital is a sea of calm: few people working and a strong demand for skilled professionals." What the student realized in practice appears on the results of an x-ray on the labour market of agribusiness, given by the Center for the study of Agribusiness of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). In the last five years, agribusiness has absorbed less and less labor, mostly informal. This occurred because of the incorporation of new technologies in the field, more capital-intensive, which increased productivity. The result was an increase in the remuneration of workers, a more intense rhythm than the economy in General. The field admitted skilled professionals, as Okano, and paid extra for that. The study, based on data from Pnad IBGE and coordinated by Fareed Serigatti, reveals that between 2012 and 2017 the population occupied in agribusiness fell 1.9% per year. In 2012 were 19.7 million people and, at the end of last year, 18 million. The fall was more pronounced in the informal work (-3.4% per year), but there were also formal workers retreat of agribusiness (-1.4%). In agriculture, which is one of the segments of agribusiness, the retraction in the occupation was far greater: of 5% a year in informal contracts and 4.9% in the formal. "Agribusiness has absorbed less and less informal labor and with less qualification. This may seem like bad news, but it's not, "says Serigatti. He argues that, with intensive use of technology, productivity and the income of the occupied has increased. Between 2012 and 2017, the average yield real (inflation adjusted) work in agribusiness grew 7%, far above the advancement registered for workers of all sectors of the economy in the period of 4.6%. In agriculture, the advance accumulated in five years was 9.2% and agriculture, of 8.3%. Chaos. Serigatti explains that the reduction of manpower in the field led to the increase in the number of unemployed. "I don't share this hypothesis that the release of this work has led to the social chaos." With more productivity, agribusiness, expanded income in the inner cities and the unemployed of the field were working in the service sector. The Economist does this statement based on the performance of the economy in the interior that, according to the IBGE, was better than the metropolitan regions. Between 2000 and 2015, the GDP of cities of the interior grew 3.7% per year, while the metropolitan regions advanced 2.5%, and the Country went up 3%. A study of the National Agriculture Confederation (CNA) confirms the trend pointed to by FGV, however with different numbers. Renato Conchon, Coordinator of the Center for economy of CNA, says that the slice of the workforce occupied in agribusiness, which was 32% in 2014 fell to 19% in 2017. "The field is hiring less and paying more," he says. The portion of workers who received up to a salary, which was 33.6% of occupied in 2014, retreated to 29.8% in 2016. In the same period, the share of those who had no instruction or up to two years of study fell from 34.4% to 32.3%. "The field as the labour market for those with no qualifications is becoming smaller," says.