Rural workers include:
- "Wage earners who work on a permanent, casual, seasonal or migrant basis for large or small farms, or in forestry or fishing, and receive a wage in return for their labour;
- Self-employed sharecroppers and tenants who work land they do not own; and,
- Small owners, who work their own land."
(Castro, M. and I. Graham,
Land Distribution – Unions Push for Real Reform, ILO, 131-132 (2-3), 2003, visited 2010-08-29)
The rural economy is mostly built on the exploitation of natural resources and primary sector activities such as: agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, energy, breeding, hunting, trapping. Additionally,
rural workers may be active as artisans or within the manufacturing sector. These occupations may be a good source of revenue between two crops.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that 42 percent of rural jobs are low-skill. [...] Though the share of rural jobs that are low-skill is declining, the proportion remains higher than in urban areas, as it has been historically. [...]
Two important factors make it harder for
rural workers than for urban workers to adjust to job loss. First, the local economy in rural communities often depends on one industry rather than the diverse set of industries that characterize urban economies. When the paper mill closes in a small town in New England or a textile firm moves its operations from the rural South to China, workers who lose their jobs have few, if any other, local job prospects. Second, even when there are other employment opportunities in rural communities, they often require retraining and skill upgrades but the training and education infrastructure is not as well-developed as it is in urban parts of the country."
(Glasmeier, A. and P. Salant,
Low-Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss, 2006, visited 2011-08-29)
Rural work is an area where non-compliance with labour standards and social security is frequently found. Indeed, general or special standards are difficult to apply to rural labour because of the following factors. In many countries, rural people are often unaware of the existence or content of applicable labour standards. Agricultural work is mostly performed by seasonal and temporary workers. They are not always declared by their employer and therefore not eligible for social security. "Finally, the state itself does not usually have at its disposal a labour administration capable of informing, assisting and inspecting agricultural enterprises which, as a sector, is a frequent user of child labour. Thus labour standards are not enforced, occupational safety and health regulations are not known and the failure to declare workers goes undetected."
(adapted from Daza, J.,
Labour Inspection and the Informal Economy,
Labour Education, 140-141, 2005, visited 2011-08-30)
