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Hired Farm Work Force Reports, 1945-87

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July 10, 2020

Average employment in US agriculture declined by 75 percent between 1945 and 2020, from almost 10 million to less than 2.5 million. The hired worker share of average employment in US agriculture doubled from a third to two-thirds over this 75-year period.

During the four decades between 1945 and the late 1980s, the number of farm operators and unpaid family workers fell faster than the number of hired workers. The hired worker share of average agricultural employment rose from less than a quarter to over a third.

The hired worker share of average employment rose between 1945 and 1987

Annual Average Farm Employment 1
Year Total Family Hired Hired labor as a percentage of total farm employment
  Thousands  
1945 9,844 7,726 2,118 22%
1950 9,926 7,597 2,329 23%
1955 8,381 6,345 2,036 24%
1960 7,057 5,172 1,885 27%
1965 5,610 4,128 1,428 26%
1970 4,523 3,348 1,175 26%
1975 4,342 3,025 1,317 30%
1980 3,705 2,402 1,303 35%
1985 3,116 2,018 1,098 35%
1987 2,897 1,846 1,051 36%
1 Average number of persons employed at any one time. Figures for 1945-80 are based on four quarters of data; figures for 1985-87 are based on three quarters of data.

Beginning in 1945, the Current Population Survey included a December supplement that asked if anyone in the household did farm work for wages during the year. USDA tabulated these data on hired farm workers in its Hired Farm Workforce reports.

The total number of hired farm workers was 3.2 million in 1945, when the average employment of hired workers was 2.1 million, suggesting 1.5 workers for each average job. The number of hired workers rose to 4.3 million in 1950 and was 4.2 million in 1958, and then declined to 2.5 million in the 1980s. Average employment was 2.3 million in 1950 and 1.9 million in 1960, suggesting 1.7 and 2.2 workers for each average job, respectively. The average days of farm work declined in the 1950s due to rising seasonality and turnover.

The number of hired workers fell from 3.2 million in 1945 to 2.5 million in 1987, down 22 percent, while the number of days worked by hired workers fell from 301 million to 276 million, down eight percent. During the 1970s and 1980s, the number of hired workers was stable at 2.6 million. The total days of farm work reported by hired workers rose from 200 million to 275 million in the 1970s and 1980s.

Seasonality increased in the 1960s days worked fell faster than the number of workers

Number of domestic hired farmworkers and total days worked, 1945-87
Year Hired farmworkers, Thousands Total days worked, Millions Year Hired farmworkers, Thousands Total days worked, Millions
1945 3,212 301 1965 3,128 266
1946 2,770 308 1966 2,763 235
1947 3,394 361 1967 3,078 261
1948 3,752 381 1968 2,919 232
1949 4,140 369 1969 2,571 202
1950 4,342 NA 1970 2,488 201
1951 3,274 321 1971 2,550 1951
952 2,980 272 1972 2,809 247
1953 NA NA 1973 2,671 254
1954 3,009 293 1974 2,737 240
1955 NA NA 1975 2,6382 25
1956 3,575 294 1976 2,767 237
1957 3,962 287 1977 2,730 254
1958 4,212 NA 1978 NA NA
1959 3,577 311 1979 2,652 269
1960 3,693 318 1980 NA NA
1961 3,488 269 1981 2,492 243
1962 3,622 293 1982 NA NA
1963 3,597 272 1983 2,595 260
1964 3,370 272 1984 NA NA
  1985 2,5222 69
  1986 NA NA
  1987 2,463 276

The number of domestic migrant farm workers, defined by USDA as persons who crossed county lines and stayed away from a usual home at least one night to do farm work, peaked at 477,000 in 1959. The number of migrants dropped almost 20 percent before increasing to 466,000 in 1965 as farm employers recruited US workers after the end of the Bracero program. The share of US farm workers who were migrants peaked in 1965 at 15 percent.

The migrant share of US hired workers peaked in 1965 at 15 percent

Number of domestic migrant farmworkers, 1949-85
Year Migrant farmworkers Year Migrant farmworkers
Number, thousands % of total domestic hired farm work force Number, thousands % of total domestic hired farm work force
1945 NA NA 1965 466 14.9
1946 NA NA 1966 351 12.7
1947 NA NA 1967 276 9.0
1948 NA NA 1968 279 9.6
1949 420 10.1 1969 257 10.0
1950 403 9.3 1970 196 7.9
1951 NA NA 1971 172 6.7
1952 352 11.8 1972 184 6.6
1953 NA NA 1973 203 7.6
1954 365 12.1 1974 209 7.6
1955 NA NA 1975 188 7.1
1956 427 11.9 176 213 7.7
1957 427 10.8 1977 191 7.0
1958 NA NA 1978 NA NA
1959 477 13.3 1979 217 8.2
1960 409 11.1 1980 NA NA
1961 395 11.3 1981 115 4.6
1962 380 10.5 1982 NA NA
1963 386 10.7 1983 226 8.7
1964 386 11.5 1984 NA NA
  1985 159 6.3
  1986 NA NA
  1987 NA NA

Legal foreign guest workers were also employed in US agriculture. Most of the guest workers between 1945 and 1964 were admitted under several Bracero programs, including a wartime 1942-47 program that involved the US government recruiting and transporting Mexican guest workers, a 1948-50 program under which US farm employers recruited and transported Mexican guest workers, and the main 1951 PL-78 program that ended in 1964. A separate H-2 program was created in 1952, renamed H-2A in 1986, and admitted mostly guest workers from Caribbean islands until the mid-1990s, when Mexico became the main country of origin.

The number of foreign guest workers peaked in 1956 at almost 460,000, and declined rapidly after 1964. Bracero data are admissions, so a worker returning year-after-year is counted each year that he returns. H-2 and H-2A data are the number of farm jobs certified by DOL to be filled with foreign workers. Certifications reached a low of 12,500 in 1972 before almost doubling to 22,600 in 1987.

Most foreign guest workers were admitted under the Bracero program until 1964

Temporary foreign workers working in U.S. agriculture, 1945-87
Year Foreign workers Year Foreign workers
1945 72,900 1965 35,871
1946 51,347 1966 23,524
1947 30,775 1967 23,603
1948 44,916 1968 13,323
1949 112,765 1969 15,830
1950 76,525 1970 17,474
1951 203,640 1971 13,684
1952 210,210 1972 12,526
1953 215,321 1973 NA
1954 320,737 1974 NA
1955 411,966 1975 13,824
1956 459,850 1976 13,179
1957 452,205 1977 15,112
1958 447,513 1978 14,533
1959 455,420 1979 17,328
1960 334,729 1980 17,570
1961 310,375 1981 17,333
1962 217,010 1982 19,258
1963 209,218 1983 18,850
1964 200,022 1984 18,805

The US Border Patrol recorded the industry where unauthorized foreigners were employed when they were apprehended inside the US. The Border Patrol apprehended fewer than 25,000 farm workers a year until the Bracero program ended in 1964. Apprehensions of unauthorized farm workers rose to a peak of almost 125,000 in 1975 before falling to less than 10,000 in 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act that included an amnesty for unauthorized foreigners who had done farm work in 1985-86 was enacted. IRCA largely ended Border Patrol enforcement in US agriculture.

The number of unauthorized workers apprehended while employed in agriculture peaked in 1975

Olivera, Vic. 1989. Trends in the Hired Farm Work Force, 1945-87. USDA


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