Farm labor report

Find the Aug. 15 report by USDA about farm labor here. Here is a quick summary:

There were 1,173,000 hired workers on the Nation's farms and ranches during the week of July 6-12, 2008, down 3 percent from a year ago. Of these hired workers, 828,000 workers were hired directly by farm operators. Agricultural service employees on farms and ranches made up the remaining 345,000 workers. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage of $10.34 per hour during the July 2008 reference week, up 35 cents from a year earlier. Field workers received an average of $9.66 per hour, up 42 cents from last July, while livestock workers earned $9.98 per hour compared with $9.73 a year earlier. The field and livestock worker combined wage rate, at $9.74 per hour, was up 37 cents from last year.The number of hours worked averaged 40.5 hours for hired workers during the survey week,The largest decreases in the number of hired workers from last year occurred in California and in the Lake (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), Corn Belt I (Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio), Appalachian II (Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia), and Appalachian I (North Carolina and Virginia) regions. In California, lack of available irrigation water caused much acreage to be left fallow. Planted acreage of cotton, dry beans, and sugar beets declined sharply from 2007. Therefore, the demand for field workers was considerably lower. Rain and wet conditions in the Lake and Corn Belt I regions severely hampered most field activities and lessened the need for field workers. In the Appalachian I and II regions, wet conditions compared with the previous year's drier reference week reduced the demand for field workers. Lower cattle inventories in both regions led to fewer livestock workers being needed.