Farming, Fishing, and Forestry · Holland code RC
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse
Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables, fruits, nuts, horticultural specialties, and field crops. Use hand tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives. Duties may include tilling soil and applying fertilizers; transplanting, weeding, thinning, or pruning crops; applying pesticides; or cleaning, grading, sorting, packing, and loading harvested products. May construct trellises, repair fences and farm buildings, or participate in irrigation activities.
Also called: Greenhouse Worker, Grower, Harvester, Nursery Worker, Farm Laborer, Farmer, Field Irrigation Worker, Gardener.
O*NET 45-2092.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $35,660
- Middle half earn $34,320 to $38,840. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Most common education
- Less than a High School Diploma
- 39% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 2 of 5
- Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Sell and deliver plants and flowers to customers.
- Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.
- Direct and monitor the work of casual and seasonal help during planting and harvesting.
- Participate in the inspection, grading, sorting, storage, and post-harvest treatment of crops.
- Harvest plants, and transplant or pot and label them.
- Regulate greenhouse conditions, and indoor and outdoor irrigation systems.
- Feel plants' leaves and note their coloring to detect the presence of insects or disease.
- Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Speaking3.0 / 5
- Active Listening2.9 / 5
- Reading Comprehension2.8 / 5
- Writing2.8 / 5
- Critical Thinking2.8 / 5
- Monitoring2.8 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Food Production2.8 / 5
- Biology2.8 / 5
- Mechanical2.7 / 5
- Administration and Management2.7 / 5
- Chemistry2.6 / 5
- Mathematics2.6 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic100
- Investigative22
- Artistic5
- Social14
- Enterprising23
- Conventional39
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- agronomic crop production team leader · DE Produktionsteamleiter im Bereich agrarwissenschaftlicher Pflanzenbau/Produktionsteamleiterin im Bereich agrarwissenschaftlicher Pflanzenbau · FR chef d’équipe de production agricole/cheffe d’équipe de production agricole
- fruit production team leader · DE Teamleiter Obstbau/Teamleiterin Obstbau · FR chef de station fruitière
- hop farmer · DE Hopfenbauer/Hopfenbäuerin · FR producteur de houblon/productrice de houblon
- vineyard machinery operator · DE Maschinenführer Weinbau/Maschinenführerin Weinbau · FR agent tractoriste en viticulture/agente tractoriste en viticulture
- horticulture production manager · DE Produktionsleiter im Bereich Gartenbau/Produktionsleiterin im Bereich Gartenbau · FR responsable de production horticole
- horticulture production team leader · DE Produktionsteamleiter im Bereich Gartenbau/Produktionsteamleiterin im Bereich Gartenbau · FR chef d’équipe en production horticole/cheffe d’équipe en production horticole
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Gardeners and landscape gardeners (5113)165,600 employed
- Groundsmen and greenkeepers (5114)30,700 employed
- Horticultural trades (5112)13,700 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Japan
Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “農林漁業従事者”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.
- Median monthly pay
- ¥229,000
- Middle half earn ¥197,900 to ¥283,100 a month.
- Workers in the category
- 43,490
- Regular employees in firms of ten or more.
Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Germany | €31,000 |
| Sweden | €30,144 |
| Italy | €27,723 |
| Netherlands | €26,642 |
| Ireland | €25,686 |
| France | €22,942 |
| Spain | €20,465 |
| Portugal | €9,509 |
| Poland | €8,061 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the lower third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -1.60. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (45-2092).
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Is it a fit for you?
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