The objective of this paper is to analyze the employment variation in primary sector between the years 2000-2009 in Brazil. We used the methodology of input-output through the structural decomposition of the employment variation divided into effects of employment intensity, technology, demand structure, demand growth and total net variation. The main results showed that between the periods studied, there was a decrease of 773 thousand jobs in the sector of Agriculture and Extraction. We also find that the Agriculture, Forestry and Lumbering, and Livestock and Fishing sectors were the responsible for the employment decrease through the intensity effect. Looking at the total job variation, we found out that a significant amount of jobs were created in the Oil and Natural Gas and Iron sectors. Despite of that, and mostly because these sectors have a minor participation in the Brazilian primary sector, this employment increase was not enough to counterbalance the job decrease in the other sectors.