LABOR FORCE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AGRICULTURE - TRAITS AND TENDENCIES.

The paper aimed to analyze the features of work and work force in the EU agriculture and identify the changes regarding the number of working persons, number of farmers, type of work, utilized agricultural land, standard output, and age, gender, education level structure, based on the data provided by Eurostat. The authors made a comprehensive approach of the main aspects concerning labor force as a reflection of the EU policy measures. The main indicators were described and classified according to the type of work: family work and non family work, pointing out that the EU agriculture is running mainly in family farms of a small size, in which the activity is done both by the farmer and his family members. Family farms represent 95.2% of the total number of farms. They work 62.2% of the total utilized agricultural land and contribute by 59.5% to agricultural output. The higher the average farm size, the higher the average regular work force and the higher average standard output per farm and year. The farmers' ageing and workers' migration led to the decline of labor force in agriculture but to the growth of farms size and productivity. Training level of the most of working persons in agriculture is still low. The new technologies, the challenges created by climate change, the need of environment protection and biodiversity and landscapes preservation in the rural areas claims as farmers to become the main "actors" of the rural communities. Farmers have to be highly trained with entrepreneurial and technological knowledge and skills to be able to continue the sustainable development of agriculture in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]