 The total number of permanent employees in the sector fell by one-third between 1992 and 2003, in part due to the increasing reliance on mechanical harvesting, especially in the richest and more mature sugarcane producers of São Paulo state. During the same period, the share of temporary or seasonal workers has fluctuated, first declining and then increasing in recent years to about one-half of the total jobs in the sector, but in absolute terms the number of temporary workers has declined also. The sugarcane sector in the poorer Northeast region is more labor-intensive as production in this region represents only 18.6 % of the country's total production but employs 44.3 % of worker force in the sugarcane sector.
