United States Agriculture Employment

Agriculture employment in the United States has fallen sharply over the 35‑year span covered by the World Bank data, declining from an all‑time peak of 2.94 percent of the labour force in 1991 to a trough of 1.52 percent in 2025, ranking the country 18th globally. This reduction reflects long‑term structural shifts such as mechanisation, consolidation of farms and the migration of workers to service‑oriented sectors. The United States now employs a slightly larger share of its workforce in agriculture than the United Arab Emirates (1.44 percent) but less than Guam (1.56 percent) and the Virgin Islands (US) (1.59 percent), underscoring its position near the lower end of the distribution among comparable economies. Continued advances in precision farming, biotechnology and supply‑chain automation are likely to sustain the downward trajectory, although policy interventions aimed at revitalising rural labour markets or expanding bio‑economy initiatives could moderate the decline.