Profile of Hired Farmworkers, A 2008 Update
By William Kandel
Economic Research Report No. (ERR-60) 65 pp,
July 2008
Hired farmworkers make up a third of the total agricultural labor force and are critical
to U.S. agricultural production, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as fruits and
vegetables. The hired farmworker labor market is unique because it includes a large
population of relatively disadvantaged and often unauthorized workers, a portion of
whom migrate to, and within, the United States. Recent economic and demographic
trends, such as changing agricultural production methods that permit year-round employment,
expanding immigrant populations in nonmetropolitan counties, and growing
concerns over U.S. immigration policies, have elicited increased interest in hired farmworkers.
This 2008 profile serves as an update to the 2000 Economic Research Service
analysis of the 1998 Current Population Survey using current data with expanded
sections on legal status, poverty, housing, and use of social services.
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Keywords: Farmworkers, farm labor, hired farmworkers, agriculture, employment, wage and salary workers, immigration, farm labor, agriculture, migrant, immigrant, farm structure, demography, legal status, employment, poverty, housing, social services, health, ERS
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Updated date: July 11, 2008
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