Employment In The Agriculture: A Comparative Analysis Republic Of Moldova Versus European Union Member States

This paper addresses the problem of employment in the world's oldest industry - agriculture. During the development of the society, agriculture has gone through several transformations, with labor playing an important role in this. In recent years, agriculture is also undergoing major global transformations, with direct consequences for the workforce composition. The major changes that have taken place in the agricultural sector in the Republic of Moldova have not led to a decreasing level of employment. However, Moldova has a high level of agricultural employment. Moreover, also influenced by climatic factors, this sector is underperforming compared to other sectors. Own-account workers and unpaid family workers are the most common forms of employment in the Republic of Moldova. Most of the time, these categories of labor do not have the necessary qualifications to carry out agricultural activities, which is why they suffer in terms of agricultural productivity. In this context, several occupational indicators are analyzed in order to highlight the most obvious employment problems in agriculture. The occupational indicators analyzed in comparison with those recorded in the Member States of the European Union (EU) make it possible to identify similarities and disparities in agricultural employment. The information base for the analysis of the occupational indicators is composed of statistical data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, as well as those provided by the European Union statistics (EUROSTAT), for the European Community Member States. The findings demonstrate the existence of a huge gap between the level of employment in the Republic of Moldova and the EU Member States. The informal character of employment in agriculture predominates in the Republic of Moldova, caused mainly by the lack of job stability.