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.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Operations Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
Key knowledge
- Food Production
- Biology
- Mechanical
- Administration and Management
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- English Language
- Production and Processing
What the work involves
- Plant, spray, weed, fertilize, water, and prune plants, shrubs, and trees, using gardening tools.
- Harvest plants, and transplant or pot and label them.
- Operate tractors, tractor-drawn machinery, and self-propelled machinery to plow, harrow and fertilize soil, or to plant, cultivate, spray and harvest crops.
- Set up and operate irrigation equipment.
- Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
- Harvest fruits and vegetables by hand.
- Clean work areas, and maintain grounds and landscaping.
- Inform farmers or farm managers of crop progress.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Enterprising.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Less than a High School Diploma (39% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (39.1%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (41.2%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very low | Lower on contact with others than 95% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very low | Lower on dealing with the public than 85% of occupations compared | 37% of surveyed respondents chose “Not important at all” |
| Teamwork | Very low | Lower on teamwork than 92% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 97% of occupations compared | 24% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Low | Lower on time pressure than 60% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very low | Lower on conflict situations than 98% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Low | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 65% of occupations compared | 33% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 69% of occupations compared | 33% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: low
- Conflict situations: very low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: low
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 9.56%
- Occasional contact with others: 25.41%
- Contact with others about half the time: 8.19%
- Contact with others most of the time: 21.51%
- Constant contact with others: 35.34%
n = 49, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 37.4%
- Fairly important: 14.39%
- Important: 28.29%
- Very important: 11.77%
- Extremely important: 8.15%
n = 50, Incumbent 08/2022
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 3.08%
- Fairly important: 14.29%
- Important: 39.17%
- Very important: 23.4%
- Extremely important: 20.06%
n = 50, Incumbent 08/2022
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 19.99%
- Very little freedom: 21.05%
- Limited freedom: 18.08%
- Some freedom: 17.2%
- A lot of freedom: 23.68%
n = 51, Incumbent 08/2022
Time pressure
- Never: 14.08%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 8.54%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 15.72%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 12.7%
- Every day: 48.96%
n = 51, Incumbent 08/2022
Conflict situations
- Never: 48.79%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 29.65%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 11.05%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 9.74%
- Every day: 0.77%
n = 51, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 33.23%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 24.05%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 13.12%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 15.87%
- Every day: 13.72%
n = 50, Incumbent 08/2022
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 32.71%
- Fairly serious: 11.73%
- Serious: 31.43%
- Very serious: 11.8%
- Extremely serious: 12.33%
n = 50, Incumbent 08/2022
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O*NET-SOC 45-2092.00 · SOC 45-2092 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8