The article deals with the historical experience of improving the socio-economic and production conditions in agriculture, the formation and use of the fund of working time by employees of the agricultural sectorin 1970s. The author describes the main trends in the use of working time, its distribution among the basic agricultural spheres and some social and professional groups of the rural population. It is stated that along with the development of theindustryspecialization and production focus, the sphere of labour work functioning and the production means based on prevalence of big production is increased. Thereisgrowthofworkforceproductivity.