Hired Farmworkers : Profile & Labor Issues

This book looks at hired farmworkers who 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 are discussed in this book, 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. This 2008 profile serves as an update to the 2000 Economic Research Service analysis using current data with expanded sections on legal status, poverty, housing and use of social services. Consequently, as examined in this book, hired farmworkers remain among the most economically disadvantaged working groups in the U.S., despite their critical importance to many agricultural sectors.