ABOUT 5800 fewer people are employed in the SA agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors compared with 14 months ago, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.
There is much speculation about the ABS labour force data, which said 31,000 people were employed in the sector compared with 36,800 in November 2015.
Primary Producers SA chairman Rob Kerin questioned the veracity of the figures, saying the sample size of the survey and separation of industries could lead to inconsistencies.
“This delineation between food and agriculture is getting more cloudy,” he said. “What they’ve (ABS) called food and what they’ve called agriculture from one year to the next is questionable.”
The ABS data shows a significant drop in agricultural jobs in NSW, Vic and Qld in the past 12 months, while WA had a growth of 35.3 per cent in the same period.
Mr Kerin said the changing face of agriculture could be another reason for the startling job estimates, with more jobs crossing industry boundaries. He said there were many opportunities in the agricultural sector and more people should consider it as a career path.
Opposition Agriculture spokesperson David Ridgway said the jobs data could show the impact of increasing levies, unnecessary red tape and the expensive cost of doing business in SA.
“Most people have plenty of work but can’t afford the cost of employing,” he said.
“It puts pressure on farm businesses and if they need to cut costs, labour is one of the places that goes first.”
A PIRSA spokesperson said the PIRSA Food and Wine Scorecard for 2015-16 showed continued growth in the value of the sector.
“Employment figures are derived from quarterly ABS surveys for the whole of Australia and because SA has a relatively small population, the figures can fluctuate,” the spokesperson said.
“The ABS employment data is based on a small size of survey which may produce a sampling variability in the figures reported as the data is not collected from the entire population as occurs with Census data.
“The smaller the sector that is being reported on, the larger the likely error in the published data.
“In the absence of other data being available, PIRSA typically reports an average employment figure across the 4 previous quarters.
“The figures for subsectors should be read with caution and the total agriculture figure should be used as the better indicator of employment trends.”
Overall, SA’s total employment figure rose from 811,000 in November 2015 to 817,500 12 months later.
