Career
Farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse
Plant, tend and harvest crops.
$35,660
Median pay
-2.4%
Job growth, 2025–35
72,500
Openings a year
No formal educational credential
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- 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.
- Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields, or costs.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Speaking, Operations Monitoring, Active Listening, Writing.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though short-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $35,660 a year and 72,500 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Agricultural Equipment Operators$41,730 · +8.6%
- Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals$36,670 · -3.2%
- Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products$35,730 · -3.4%
- Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers$39,150 · +4.7%
- Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation$46,340 · +3.9%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.