Since the beginning of estate development in Indonesia, living standard of estate labour has been low. This has caused the difficulty of recruting estate labour, including tappers in rubber estates especially in Java and some places in Sumatra where industrial sector has developed. This paper presents the results of a study investigating social-economic status and availability of tappers in some rubber estates in Southern Sumatra and West Java. The study involved the government and private-owned estates which were selected based on the location and the performance of the estates. The study showed that the welfare level of tapperrs was different among estates. The tappers in established estates have relatively a better welfare life than the tappers in new estates indicated by assets ownership, income level and the percentage of saving. The availability of tappers for the established estates has not been a crucial problem, however, there was a lack of tappers in the isolated new rubber estates and in some estates in West Java in terms of quantity and quality of tappers. Increasing basic wage, improving work condition and implementing alternative tapping systems are some efforts that can be made to solve the problems of tappers shortage in the selected rubber estates.