[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

Farm Labor

Labor use on U.S. farms has changed dramatically over the past several decades. Average annual farm employment dropped from 9.9 million in 1950 to 2.9 million in 1997. This decrease resulted largely from the trend toward fewer and larger farms, increased farm mechanization and other technological innovations, and higher off-farm wages. However, farm employment appears to have stabilized in recent years as increases in mechanization and labor-saving technology have leveled off and the downward trend in farm numbers has slowed.

Family workers, including farm operators and unpaid workers, accounted for 69 percent of farm labor in 1997, while hired farmworkers accounted for 31 percent. Service workers, including crew leaders and custom crews, accounted for 9 percent of all workers on farms in 1997.

The average wage rate for hired farmworkers in the United States in 1997 was $7.36 per hour. Wages varied by State, ranging from a low of $5.69 per hour in Wyoming to a high of $10.13 per hour in Hawaii.

Labor comprises a significant portion of total farm production expenses. The 1992 Census of Agriculture reported the expenditures for hired and contract labor on U.S. farms were $15.3 billion in 1992, or almost 12 percent of total farm production expenses. About 36 percent of all farms had hired labor expenses and 12 percent had contract labor expenses.

The importance of labor varied significantly by farm type and size of farm. The proportion of total farm production expenses attributed to hired and contract labor was greatest on horticultural specialty farms (45 percent), fruit and tree nut farms (40 percent), and vegetable and melon farms (37 percent). These types of farms are the least mechanized, and many of the commodities they produce are still harvested by hand. At the other extreme, labor expenses comprised less than 5 percent of all production expenses on beef cattle, hog, sheep, poultry, and cash grain farms.

Larger farms are more likely to have labor needs in excess of that provided by the family farm. Farms of 260 or more acres, which accounted for only 32 percent of all farms, had 70 percent of all labor expenses in 1992. In terms of sales class, the 27 percent of all farms with $50,000 or more in value of products sold accounted for 95 percent of all labor expenses.

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