Field entry, published 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z, updated 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z. Group: Major Group 6: Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers
What work sits in Major Group 6?
| Major group | Major Group 6: Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers |
|---|---|
| Skill level | Skill level 2, ISCO-08, ILO |
| Code ladder | Major Group 6, then sub-major, minor and unit groups in ISCO-08 |
Classification only, not a job decision
This overview describes how ISCO-08 groups skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery work. It does not assign an occupation or a code to any reader.
Major Group 6 in ISCO-08 holds skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers. Their work centres on growing crops, raising animals, managing forests, fishing, hunting and gathering, where the worker carries skilled responsibility for the living material, the season and the harvest. The group is defined by that skilled, hands on relationship with plants, animals, trees and water, rather than by the size of a farm, the ownership of land or the place where a product is later sold.
What work sits at the centre of this group?
At the centre sit jobs in which planning, judgement and care shape a living outcome. A crop grower chooses what to plant, prepares ground, tends growth and decides when a crop is ready. An animal producer feeds, breeds, monitors health and manages the cycle from birth or purchase through to sale or use. A forestry worker plants, thins, protects and harvests trees with attention to regrowth and stand health. A fishery worker uses knowledge of waters, seasons, species and gear to catch or raise aquatic life. In each case the work depends on reading weather, soil, water, animal behaviour or forest condition, and on acting before a small problem becomes a lost season.
How does the group split into three broad families?
ISCO-08 divides Major Group 6 into three sub-major families, and those families are the first sorting step after the major group itself.
| Broad family | What it gathers |
|---|---|
| Market-oriented skilled agricultural workers | Crop growers, animal producers and mixed crop and animal producers whose output is mainly for sale |
| Market-oriented skilled forestry, fishery and hunting workers | Forestry workers, fishery workers, hunters and trappers whose output is mainly for sale |
| Subsistence farmers, fishers, hunters and gatherers | People who produce mainly for their own household or community use |
The market and subsistence split matters because two jobs can look alike in the field yet belong in different families. A person growing vegetables for a market stall and a person growing similar vegetables mainly to feed a household are doing recognisably similar tasks, but the classification separates them by the main purpose of production. That distinction is about the destination of the output, not about how hard the work is or how much skill a particular person happens to have.
What separates skilled work here from nearby work?
Skill level and responsibility draw the boundary with neighbouring groups. Major Group 6 is placed at skill level 2 in ISCO-08. Elementary agricultural, forestry and fishery labourers, who appear in Major Group 9, generally carry out simpler, more routine tasks under closer direction, such as picking, digging or clearing as instructed. Managers of agricultural, forestry and fisheries production, who appear in Major Group 1, are classified by their management responsibility for an enterprise, even when that enterprise is a farm, a forest operation or a fishery. Scientists and technicians who advise on soils, animal health or forestry sit in other major groups because their main tasks are scientific or technical support, not the direct skilled production work itself.
Why does purpose matter as much as task?
Task alone can mislead a reader of the classification. Planting, feeding, pruning, netting and trapping are techniques, and the same technique can serve a market business, a household food supply or a conservation task. ISCO-08 therefore asks about the main tasks and duties of the job as a whole, and about the purpose that organises them. A mixed producer, for example, is not simply a crop grower who happens to keep a few animals, or an animal producer who happens to grow some feed. Mixed production is its own grouping when both crop and animal work form a substantial part of the job. Similarly, aquaculture, in which fish or other aquatic organisms are raised under controlled conditions, is grouped with fishery work because the living material and the knowledge required resemble fishing more closely than ordinary farming.
What should a reader take from this overview?
The useful picture is a hierarchy that narrows by purpose and then by specialisation. Major Group 6 names the broad world of skilled work with living production. Its three families separate market production from subsistence production and agriculture from forestry, fishery and hunting. Below them, minor and unit groups narrow further by the kind of crop, animal, forest or water involved. Reading the group in that order keeps the focus on what the job mainly does, why it is done and how much skilled judgement it requires, which is exactly how ISCO-08 is designed to be read.
Sources checked
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