Files
Abstract
In 2017, roughly 2 million people spent all or part of their year as agricultural wage and salary workers. Over the past decade, the average age of hired farm laborers has risen steadily, from age 35.8 years in 2006 to 38.8 years in 2017. This increase has been entirely driven by the aging of foreign-born farm laborers, who comprised between 54 and 58 percent of the workforce over this period. Their average age rose from 35.7 in 2006 to 41.6 in 2017. In contrast, the average age of farm laborers born in the United States has remained roughly constant.