ERS Farm worker report

Bringing the statistic that half of all hired farm workers are unauthorized, here is a link to the 2008 report on hired farm workers from the USDA ERS. From the report's summary:


Profile of hired farmworkers: a 2008 update
Current estimates indicate that more than 1 million hired farmworkers are employed in U.S. agriculture. Economic and demographic trends have elicited an increased interest in hired armworkers, including the impact they have on U.S agricultural production. While productivity gains have gradually reduced the total agricultural labor force, hired farmworkers continue to play an important role in this industry.
What Is the Issue?
Hired farmworkers make up a third of the total agricultural labor force and are critical to U.S. agricultural production, particularly for labor-intensive sectors such as fruits and vegetables. the hired-farmworker labor market is unique because it includes a relatively disadvantaged nd sometimes mobile workforce, a large proportion of whom lack authorization to work in the United States. Although agriculture employs less than 2 percent of the U.S. labor force, recent economic and demographic trends such as agricultural production methods that permit year-round employment, expanding immigrant populations in nonmetropolitan counties, and growing concerns over U.S. immigration policies have increased interest in hired farmworkers.

What Did the Study Find?
• In 2006, an average 1.01 million hired farmworkers made up a third of the estimated 3 million people employed in agriculture. The other 2.05 million included self-employed farmers and their unpaid family members.
• Productivity gains have gradually reduced the total agricultural labor force and the number of hired farmworkers within it.
• Expanding nonfarm economic opportunities for farmers and their family members have increased farmers’ reliance on hired farm labor.
• Despite new patterns of Hispanic population settlement in rural areas, the geographic distribution of farmworkers has not changed signifi cantly in the past decade. California Florida, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and North Carolina account for half of all hired and contracted farmworkers.
• Hired farmworkers are disadvantaged in the labor market relative to most other U.S. wage and salary workers. On average, hired farmworkers are younger, less educated, more likely to be foreign-born, less likely to speak English, and less likely to be U.S. citizens or to have alegally authorized work permit.
• According to the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), which offers the most precise data available on farmworker legal status, half of all hired crop farmworkers lack legal authorization to work in the U.S.