By dividing 147 typical counties of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region into four zones: optimizing development zone (I), priority development zone (II), agricultural zone (III) and ecological preservation zone (IV), this paper estimated farmland use efficiency of the counties of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region as well as the four zones in 2000—2016 by stochastic frontier production function model and explored the effects of rural off-farm employment on farmland use efficiency. Results show that: 1) the rural off-farm employment rates are different among four different zones with the following order from the highest to the lowest: II, I, III and IV; and 2) there were significant regional differences of the effects of rural off-farm employment on farmland use efficiency in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with the elasticities of the farmland use efficiency to the rate of rural off-farm employment were 0.0089, -0.0038, 0.0024 for development zone (I), priority development zone (II), and agricultural zone (III) respectively. While the elasticity in the ecological preservation zone (IV) is not significant. Finally, in order to build new modes of agricultural development to increase the farmland use efficiency and to guide rational labor transfer in an orderly manner, this paper suggests: to cultivate new industry and new format, to establish a sound mechanism of land conversion and regulatory mechanism of agricultural land use change, and to implement differentiated path choices for sustainable arable land use.