Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 1997-1998: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers
Author: Mehta, Kala; Gabbard, Susan M.; Barrat, Vanessa
Date Published: 2000
This is Report number eight in a series of publications based on the findings of the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), a nationwide, random survey on the demographic and employment characteristics of hired crop workers. This report, like those before it, finds that several long-standing trends characterizing the farm labor workforce and the farm labor market continue. It finds that farmworker wages have stagnated, annual earnings remain below the poverty level, farmworkers experience chronic underemployment and that the farm workforce increasingly consists of young, single males who are recent immigrants. NAWS findings of low wages, underemployment, and low annual incomes of U.S. crop workers are indicative of a national oversupply of farm labor. Low annual income, in turn, most likely contributes to the instability that characterizes the agricultural labor market, as farm workers seek jobs paying higher wages and offering more hours of work. The National Agricultural Workers Survey profiles characteristics of crop workers and their jobs; important components of the supply side of the farm labor market. Labor markets, however, reflect the interaction of labor supply and demand. A study of the demand for farm labor, and how it would likely change as the farm labor supply changed, is beyond the scope of the NAWS. Such a study, however, would complement the farm worker data collected via the NAWS and help point the way to an agricultural labor market that promotes stable employment, higher wages and a legal, domestic workforce.
Date Published: 2000
This is Report number eight in a series of publications based on the findings of the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), a nationwide, random survey on the demographic and employment characteristics of hired crop workers. This report, like those before it, finds that several long-standing trends characterizing the farm labor workforce and the farm labor market continue. It finds that farmworker wages have stagnated, annual earnings remain below the poverty level, farmworkers experience chronic underemployment and that the farm workforce increasingly consists of young, single males who are recent immigrants. NAWS findings of low wages, underemployment, and low annual incomes of U.S. crop workers are indicative of a national oversupply of farm labor. Low annual income, in turn, most likely contributes to the instability that characterizes the agricultural labor market, as farm workers seek jobs paying higher wages and offering more hours of work. The National Agricultural Workers Survey profiles characteristics of crop workers and their jobs; important components of the supply side of the farm labor market. Labor markets, however, reflect the interaction of labor supply and demand. A study of the demand for farm labor, and how it would likely change as the farm labor supply changed, is beyond the scope of the NAWS. Such a study, however, would complement the farm worker data collected via the NAWS and help point the way to an agricultural labor market that promotes stable employment, higher wages and a legal, domestic workforce.
