A statistical portrait of hired farmworkers

Because of the seasonal nature of agriculture, many farmworkers are excluded from decennial censuses. These exclusions suggest a significant undercounting of the number of farmworkers. The usefulness of census data for farm labor research is evaluated using data from the 1981 Hired Farm Working Force Survey. This report focuses on 2 groups of workers: 1. those doing hired farmwork during March and representing most closely the hired-farmworker population as measured by the census, and 2. those working at other times of the year and thus excluded from census farm labor categories. Findings include: 1. Hired farmworkers employed in March appear strongly attached to the occupation, and about 75% performed farmwork in at least 9 other months. 2. Farmworkers hired in other months tend to be seasonal workers with relatively low attachment to hired farmwork. 3. Those performing work in months other than March tend to be younger, single, and not the head of a household.