what percentage of workers is in agriculture

What percentage of the population works in agriculture?

Within the population, 19% identify as migratory, while 81% are seasonal agricultural workers. The bulleted list below provides agricultural worker demographic information from the 2015-2016 National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) results. [3] (.

What percentage of farm workers are hired?

 · Employment in industry (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate) Employment in services (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate) Child employment in agriculture, male (% of male economically active children ages 7-14)

What percentage of agricultural workers are migratory?

72% of agricultural workers were male and 28% were female. 63% of agricultural workers surveyed were married, 29% were single and 8% were divorced. 57% of all agricultural workers were parents. 29% of agricultural workers had one to two children in the household, and 14% had three or more. Language & Education.

How much does an agricultural worker make a year?

 · Agriculture and its related industries provide 10.3 percent of U.S. employment In 2020, 19.7 million full- and part-time jobs were related to the agricultural and food sectors—10.3 percent of total U.S. employment. Direct on-farm employment accounted for about 2.6 million of these jobs, or 1.4 percent of U.S. employment.

How many hours do agricultural workers work?

Agricultural workers usually do their tasks outdoors in all kinds of weather. Most work full time, and some work more than 40 hours per week.

What are the duties of an agricultural worker?

Duties. Agricultural workers typically do the following: Plant, inspect, and harvest crops. Irrigate farm soil and maintain ditches or pipes and pumps.

Why do agricultural workers need physical endurance?

Physical stamina. Agricultural workers must have physical endurance because they do laborious tasks repeatedly.

How long does it take to get a farm worker training?

Many agricultural workers receive short-term on-the-job training of up to 1 month. Employers instruct them on how to use simple farming tools and complex machinery while following safety procedures. Agricultural equipment operators may need more extensive training before being allowed to operate expensive farming equipment.

Do agricultural workers get training?

Agricultural workers typically receive on-the-job training once they are hired.

How many hours do farmers work?

Work Schedules. Most work full time, and some work more than 40 hours per week. Because living crops and animals need constant care, workers’ schedules may vary to include early mornings, weekends, and holidays.

Is agriculture dangerous?

Injuries and Illnesses. Agricultural work may be dangerous. Although agricultural workers may be exposed to pesticides applied on crops or plants, the risk is minimized if workers follow safety procedures. Tractors and other farm machinery may cause serious injuries, so workers must stay alert.

How old are agricultural workers?

Agricultural workers in the United States have an average age of 38 years. 34 % are 45 years of age or older. 49 % are between 25 and 44. 11 % are between 20 and 24. 7% are between 14 and 19. The average level of completed education was 8th grade. 4 % had not completed any formal schooling.

How do agricultural workers help the economy?

Agricultural workers support the $1.109 trillion agricultural industry in the U.S. [2] Some studies noted a rise in agricultural workers over the last decade, and the presence of agricultural workers increased the overall economic output of their agricultural regions. [4] Eliminating the agricultural workers or switching to less labor-intensive crops negatively impacts agricultural regions and reduces the number of jobs available to permanent local residents. [4] Research conducted on Michigan’s agricultural economy found that agricultural workers contributed over $23.3 million dollars to the state’s annual economy by enabling farmers to produce higher-value crops, after the deduction of agricultural workers’ wages and housing costs. [5] Strict immigration laws passed in several states have demonstrated the severe impacts of farm labor shortages. [6] A University of Georgia study found that House Bill 87, passed in April 2011, adversely affected the state’s agricultural output. Georgia lost over $181 million in less than a year due to increased labor shortages. [7]

What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?

The Fair Labor Standards Act: First enacted in 1938, the FLSA has undergone many amendments; it establishes a minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping and child labor standards. [33] The agricultural industry is specifically exempted from the requirement for overtime pay, so agricultural employers are not required to pay employees time and a half for working more than 40 hours a week. [34] Small agricultural employers that do not meet a set threshold of labor hours are also exempted from the requirement to pay minimum wage. [34]

When was the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard enacted?

Agricultural Worker Protection Standard: Enacted in 1992 and revised in 2015, Environmental Protection Agency enforces this standard. [38] Primarily focused on the safe handling of pesticides, the standard now prohibits children under the age of 18 from handling pesticides, requires that workers do not enter areas recently sprayed with pesticides, and improves protection for workers from retaliation if they make complaints about violations of the standard.

What are the barriers to accessing health care for agricultural workers?

A study conducted in New York in 2007 found that poverty, frequent mobility, low literacy, language and cultural barriers impede agricultural workers’ access to social services and cost-effective primary health care. [27] The small percentage of agricultural workers who do take advantage of health services face more issues: a limited means of transportation, language and cultural barriers, no health coverage, cost of services, the lack of time-efficient healthcare delivery methods and the medical referral system. [28] For over 55 years, health centers have provided primary care services to agricultural workers via the federal Health Center Program. [29] Health centers are community-based and patient-directed organizations that serve populations with limited access to health care. These include low-income populations, the uninsured, those with limited English proficiency, agricultural workers, individuals and families experiencing homelessness, and those living in public housing. [30] Some Health Centers receive federal funds to provide health services to agricultural worker patients. In 2019, the Health and Resources Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that the health center program provided health services to 1,031,049 agricultural workers (including family members) as reported by all Community Health Centers; of which 903,842 received services from 175 centers with specific funds to help agricultural workers. [31] According to HRSA’s Health Center Data, the following are the most common diagnoses reported by Health Centers for this set of patients in 2019. [22] (See NCFH’s fact sheet on Farmworker Health for more detailed information about health issues among agricultural workers nationally.

How many states do not require workers compensation insurance?

In the United States and U.S. territories, 17 states do not require workers’ compensation insurance for agricultural workers, 14 states require workers’ compensation for all agricultural workers and the remaining 19 states require it, but provide exceptions for small employers. [13] .

Why are agricultural workers more challenged?

Because a worker’s benefits are state-dependent, agricultural workers are often more challenged by the qualifications and requirements of each state . Farmworker Justice compiled a chart of state-specific worker’s compensation coverage limitations for agricultural workers. [13] .

How many agricultural workers are there in the US?

According to national reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Labor, there are an estimated 2 to 3 million migratory and seasonal agricultural workers in the United States. 1,2 In order to plan, monitor, and evaluate the health status and needs of the agricultural worker population, demographic information is necessary. Accurately assessing the demographic information of this population has proven difficult over the years due to many factors: a highly mobile lifestyle, limited English proficiency, varying levels of citizenship status, cultural barriers, and difficulties in classifying agricultural workers posed by the peak time and seasonality of the crop production process. For nearly three decades, the U.S. Department of Labor has conducted the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) to collect information from migratory and seasonal agricultural workers (crop workers) in the United States and has been one of the most accurate sources for obtaining demographic information on this group. The NAWS is an employment-based, randomized survey of the demographic, employment, and health characteristics of the U.S. crop labor force. The information is obtained directly from agricultural workers through face-to-face interviews. The NAWS is performed under contract to the U.S. Department of Labor, and its information is made available to the public through periodic research reports and a public use data set. Each year, between 1,500 and 3,000 workers are interviewed. NAWS only interviews crop workers, thus information provided within this factsheet does not encompass agriculture workers of other agricultural industries, such as animal production, poultry or aquaculture.

How many agricultural workers are foreign born?

The majority (73%) of all agricultural workers were foreign born: 69% of all agricultural workers were born in Mexico. 27% were from the U.S and Puerto Rico. 40% of foreign-born agricultural workers have spent 20 or more years in the United States.

When was the profile of hired farmworkers updated?

Profile of Hired Farmworkers, A 2008 Update. Kandel, W, United States Department of Agriculture, 2008.

How many agricultural workers are covered by workers compensation?

Only 51% of agricultural workers reported being covered by workers’ compensation insurance, 21% of workers said they were not covered, and 28% did not know. 14% of agricultural workers reported being covered by employer-provided health insurance.

How many years of farm experience do farmers have?

More than a third (36%) of agricultural workers surveyed had more than 15 years of U.S. farm experience.

How is NAWS information obtained?

The information is obtained directly from agricultural workers through face-to-face interviews. The NAWS is performed under contract to the U.S. Department of Labor, and its information is made available to the public through periodic research reports and a public use data set. Each year, between 1,500 and 3,000 workers are interviewed.

What percentage of farm workers are hired?

Hired farmworkers make up less than 1 percent of all U.S. wage and salary workers, but they play an essential role in U.S. agriculture. According to data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture, wages and salaries plus contract labor costs represented just 12 percent of production expenses for all farms, but 43 percent for greenhouse and nursery operations and 39 percent for fruit and tree nut operations.

What are the two types of agricultural workers?

The U.S. agricultural workforce has long consisted of a mixture of two groups of workers: (1) self-employed farm operators and their family members, and (2) hired workers . Both types of employment were in long-term decline from 1950 to 1990, as mechanization contributed to rising agricultural productivity, reducing the need for labor.

How much do agricultural managers make an hour?

Average hourly wages for hired agricultural managers stood at $25.58 in 2020, up 3.5 percent from the year before. Supervisors averaged $22.48 per hour, up 5.2 percent.

What was the average farm wage in 1990?

By 2019, the farm wage ($13. 99) was equal to 60 percent of the nonfarm wage ($23.51).

Is the farm workforce aging?

The Hired Farm Workforce Is Aging. As fewer young immigrants are entering agriculture, the average age of foreign-born farmworkers has risen, pulling up the average for the farm workforce as a whole. The average age of immigrant farmworkers rose by 5 years between 2008 and 2018.

What is NAWS in agriculture?

Notably, the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), discussed below, finds larger shares of foreign-born, Hispanic, and less educated employees among crop and support workers than does the ACS (livestock workers are not surveyed in NAWS).

What are the demographic differences between crop workers and livestock workers?

A larger share of laborers in crops and related support industries are female (28 percent versus 22 percent in livestock). Crop laborers are also less likely to be non-Hispanic White (24 percent versus 50 percent for livestock), and less likely to have been born in the United States ( 37 percent for crop workers in manual labor occupations versus 61 percent for manual livestock workers). Finally, crop laborers have lower levels of educational attainment: 53 percent lack a high school degree, compared with 34 percent in livestock.

How many jobs are there in agriculture in 2019?

In 2019, 22.2 million full- and part-time jobs were related to the agricultural and food sectors—10.9 percent of total U.S. employment. Direct on-farm employment accounted for about 2.6 million of these jobs, or 1.3 percent of U.S. employment. Employment in agriculture- and food-related industries supported another 19.6 million jobs.

What is the agriculture sector?

The U.S. agriculture sector extends beyond the farm business to include a range of farm-related industries. The largest of these are food service and food manufacturing. Americans’ expenditures on food amount to 13 percent of household budgets on average. Among Federal Government outlays on farm and food programs, …

How much does agriculture contribute to GDP?

Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $1.109 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, a 5.2-percent share. The output of America’s farms contributed $136.1 billion of this sum—about 0.6 percent of GDP.

What are the sectors of agriculture?

Sectors related to agriculture include: food and beverage manufacturing; food and beverage stores; food services and eating and drinking places; textiles, apparel, and leather products; and forestry and fishing.

How many people are employed in the food and beverage industry in 2019?

In 2019, the U.S. food and beverage manufacturing sector employed 1.7 million people, or just over 1.1 percent of all U.S. nonfarm employment.

How much is the food and agriculture industry?

All together, food and agriculture sector is a $1.053 trillion industry. 1. Every state is involved in food production, but California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota make up more than one-third of total U.S. agricultural-output value.

How much does agriculture contribute to GDP?

As the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service explains, “Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $1.053 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, a 5.4-percent share. The output of America’s farms contributed $132.8 billion of this sum—about 1 percent of GDP. The overall contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP is larger than this because sectors related to agriculture—forestry, fishing, and related activities; food, beverages, and tobacco products; textiles, apparel, and leather products; food and beverage stores; and food service, eating and drinking places—rely on agricultural inputs in order to contribute added value to the economy.”

How does stabilizing the workforce help farmers?

Additionally, stabilizing the workforce would help U.S. farmers stay open for business, keepings jobs available for U.S. workers and pushing back on increasing food and production costs driven by the shortages.

Is forcing undocumented people to leave the food industry bad?

Relying on large numbers of undocumented individuals to fuel an industry is bad policy for workers and employers alike. But for cing them to leave would be even more devastating to our food supply, and fundamentally unfair, given what they’ve contributed. For example, the dairy industry estimates that retail milk prices would nearly double if farmers lost their foreign-born workers. Overall, agricultural output would fall by $30 to $60 billion.

What is the range of the Y axis in the workforce chart?

The chart has 1 Y axis displaying Share of total workforce. Range: 0 to 100.

How many years has a farm worker worked?

Likewise, the average farmworker has worked for their current farm employer for seven years, and more than 80% of hired farmworkers work at a single location within 75 miles of their home.

How much of the farm labor is undocumented?

Undocumented farm workers make up approximately 50% of the farm labor workforce. Without their hard work, millions of pounds of food would otherwise go unharvested. While these workers pay taxes and contribute to the economy, they are not protected by U.S. labor laws, and they live every day under the threat of arrest and family separation – all while working in extremely difficult conditions.