Occupational change and employment in agriculture in Serbia

Ognjenović, Kosovka and Vukmirović, Valentina and Nedeljković, Boban and Zubović, Jovan (2026) Occupational change and employment in agriculture in Serbia. In: VI international scientific conference Sustainable agriculture and rural development, December 11-12th, 2025, Belgrade. Institute of Agricultural Economics, Belgrade, pp. 791-800. ISBN 978-86-6269-150-7

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze employment trends in Serbian agriculture from 2010 to 2024, focusing on workforce size and occupational structure. We apply descriptive statistics to Eurostat and national Labour Force Survey data to track changes across subsectors and ISCO-08 groups. Our results show that total employment in the economy stayed stable, while agriculture declined continuously, mainly due to reduced self-employment. Agricultural production lost about one-third of its workforce, reflecting demographic pressures and the erosion of small farms. Forestry and fishing show irregular patterns without long- term growth. At the same time, the occupational structure remains rigid: skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers account for over 80% of employment, while other groups stay marginal. These findings confirm global trends of labour moving away from agriculture but reveal limited progress in Serbia toward diversification and technological change. These shifts create serious challenges for sustainability and require targeted modernization policies.

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