Land and environment
What does a Farm Worker do?
Working outdoors on growing things, ground and habitats.
What the day is like
- Outside, in the weather.
- Tools, materials, your body.
- Largely on your own.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $35,890 a year, median
- Agricultural Workers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Varies; see the handbook page
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- -2% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks shrinking
What is good about it
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
- You can see what you did at the end of the day.
What people find hard about it
- Weather
- Long seasonal hours
- Low pay for hard days
Employment is expected to shrink; skills with machinery are what hold value.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Machinery has replaced muscle in places, but outdoor work that changes by the day has resisted automation.
How to find out whether it suits you
Work a week in a season that matters: lambing, harvest or planting.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.