In the Northern Ireland, there is a conservative estimate of 14,390 people in the workforce.  However, estimates from other sources put the workforce at 30,000.  The sector constitutes 8% of the working population in Northern Ireland, compared to 4% across the rest of the UK.  A large majority of the workforce is in livestock production (up to 75%), compared to only 6% in environmental conservation and 4% in land-based engineering.

There are approximately 20,490 businesses operating wholly or principally in the land-based sector.  Businesses are typically small or micro-sized enterprises, a high proportion of which have no employees.

Key statistics on the sector in Northern Ireland include:

• the majority of the workforce are in skilled trades occupations (23%)
• 18% of the workforce are in elementary occupations
• 74% of the workforce are self-employed
• the majority of the workforce is qualified to Level 2
• 79% of the workforce are full-time
• 72% of the workforce are male
• there is no data on the age or ethnic profile of the sector
• the number of vacancies and skills gaps is too low to report

There are high numbers of people employed in skilled trade, elementary and management occupations in the sector.

The average gross weekly earnings in the sector are £247.

Education and training providers offer both full-time and part-time learning, work-based learning and short course provision.  25% of all Lantra sector employees had participated in employment related off-the-job training in the last 13 weeks.  38.5% of businesses have participated in training during the last 12 months.

Key drivers in the sector include:

• trends in production safety, traceability, quality and environment protection
• diversification into non-farming activities
• Common Agricultural Policy reforms
• continuing trends for lowering food prices towards world market levels
• increased consumer spending in amenity horticulture and garden retail, recreation and natural heritage sectors
• increasing competition
• significant recruitment problems in the land-based sector resulting from skills shortages

Source: Lantra Northern Ireland National Consultation 2006, Sector Skills Agreement Stage 1: Analysis of Current and Future Skills Needs 2005, Sector Skills Agreement Stage 1: Annex 2.6 2005 and Northern Ireland Labour Market Intelligence 2005

For data on regional workforce by industry see:

Distribution of Northern Ireland workforce by industry, 2005