Counting Hired Farmworkers: Some Points to Consider

As many as two-thirds of the Nation's hired farmworkers may not have been counted in the 1980 Decennial Census farm labor categories because they were not working on farms in March when the census data were collected. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1981 Hired Farm Working Force Survey suggest that the farm labor census data are more likely to describe those workers who are employed in hired farmwork on a year-round basis. In contrast, farmworkers who did not work in March and were excluded from the census tend to be casual or seasonal workers. Because the social and economic characteristics of year-round and seasonal workers differ considerably, research that uses census data to measure or characterize hired farmworkers may obscure important patterns and trends.