Farm Labor Expenses: Evidence from the 1997–2022 Census of Agriculture Data

USDAʼs Census of Agriculture, conducted every 5 years, collects data on farm labor expenses, with details for both contract and hired labor by agricultural industry, location, and farm size (as measured by sales). These data, when adjusted for inflation, reveal that total farm labor expenses, production expenses, and sales of agricultural products all increased in real terms from 1997 to 2022. Two measures of labor intensity, the ratio of labor expenses to total production expenses (labor-to-total-expenses) and the ratio of labor expenses to total agricultural sales (labor-to-sales), showed no clear upward or downward trend at the national level during this period. However, consistent with other evidence of a recent tightening of farm labor markets, between 2012 and 2022 the labor-to-total-expenses ratio increased overall and in virtually all industries, particularly those where the ratio was initially high. The increase in the labor-to-sales ratio was more muted nationally, but the change in this ratio varied more across industries. The increase in this ratio was particularly large (more than 5 percentage points) for two industries: tobacco and fruit and tree nuts. Otherwise, the distribution of labor expenses by industry, U.S. State, and farm size changed relatively little over the past several Censuses.