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FARM LABOR
                                                          February 24, 2003

    Florida Agricultural Statistics Service   |  1222 Woodward Street
               |  Orlando, Florida 32803   |  407 / 648-6013
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                                  FLORIDA

  The number of workers paid by farmers and agricultural services totaled
87,000 for the week of January 12 through 18. Farmers hired 70,000 workers
compared with 57,000 in October 2002 and 62,000 in January 2002.
Agricultural services provided 17,000 paid workers, up 12,000 from last
quarter, but down 2,000 from the number supplied a year ago. Cold and
mostly dry conditions persisted during the survey week with freezes and
frosts occurring from northern areas through some parts of the southern
Peninsula. Cattle producers fed supplemental protein and hay to animals
since most pastures were dormant due to drying soils and the cold
temperatures. Citrus harvesting speeded ahead with growers trying to get as
much of the crop as possible before the hard freeze that occurred at the
end of the survey week and on the two days following. Grove caretakers
prepared irrigation systems to run around the clock and dirt banked young
trees as protection from the frost, while some in more northern areas iced
fruit for cold protection. Other grove work included mowing, discing and
chopping of cover crops, and the pushing out of dead trees which some
caretakers burned in the groves to provide some heat during the colder
nights. Most centraland southern grove caretakers also applied fertilizers.
Strawberry growers ran overhead sprinklers to form ice caps on plants as
protection from the cold which saved some immature fruit and most plants.
Floriculture and nursery producers covered some plants with blankets, iced
some plants with sprinkler systems and warmed others with heaters for cold
protection with some loss occurring. Vegetable harvesting continued during
the survey week with growers harvesting as much as possible prior to the
freezing tempertatures. Other vegetable field activities included planting
of late winter and early spring crop acreage and protecting plants from the
cold temperatures.
  The January all hired worker wage rate averaged $8.90 per hour,
twenty-one cents or about two percent higher than the October 2002 wage of
$8.69 and up ten cents or about one percent from the $8.80 paid last year.
Farmers paid an average of $8.81 per hour, fourteen cents above the $8.67
paid in October, but sixteen cents lower than the $8.97 paid last year.
Agricultural services paid workers an average of $9.35 per hour,
thirty-five cents above the $9.00 paid in October and $1.10 above the $8.25
paid last year.

                               UNITED STATES

  There were 884,000 hired workers on the Nation.s farms and ranches the
week of January 12-18, 2003, down 1 percent from a year ago. Of these hired
workers, 724,000 workers were hired directly by farm operators.
Agricultural service employees on farms and ranches made up the remaining
160,000 workers.
  Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage of $9.32 per hour
during the January 2003 reference week, up 35 cents from a year earlier.
Field workers received an average of $8.29 per hour, up 4 cents from last
January, while livestock workers earned $8.91 per hour compared with $8.20
a year earlier. The field and livestock worker combined wage rate, at $8.50
per hour, was up 27 cents from last year. The number of hours worked
averaged 37.8 hours for hired workers during the survey week compared with
38.5 hours a year ago.
  The largest decreases in number of hired farm workers from a year ago
were in the Southern Plains (Oklahoma and Texas), Northeast II (Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), Mountain I (Idaho, Montana and
Wyoming) and Corn Belt I (Indiana, Illinois and Ohio) regions. In the
Southern Plains, livestock herding activity was kept at a minimum to reduce
pasture trampling and allow grasses to regrow. Unseasonably cold weather
kept Christmas tree activity down, and poultry production was down,
whichlessened the demand for workers in the Northeast II region. The
prolonged drought in the Mountain I region kept field work needs at a
minimum, and calving, lambing and shearing activities were just getting
underway. In the Corn Belt I region, hired worker numbers in January 2002
were much higher than usual due to unseasonably warm weather. This year, a
return to more normal weather patterns decreased the demand for hired
workers.
  The largest increases in number of hired farm workers over last year
occurred in California, Florida, and in the Appalachian II (Kentucky,
Tennessee and West Virginia) and Lake (Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin)
regions. California.s hired farm work force was up considerably due to the
much warmer and drier conditions compared to the January 2002 reference
week. Winter vegetable harvest was in full swing, along with field
preparation for spring vegetable plantings. A major winter storm in
Tennessee necessitated more livestock care and feeding in the Appalachian
II region, thus increasing the need for hired workers. In the western half
of the Lake region, the relative lack of snow cover led to increased
herding activity on livestock operations and a higher demand for hired
workers.
  Hired farm worker wage rates were generally above a year ago in most
regions. The largest increases occurred in the Northeast II, Northern
Plains (Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota), Southern Plains
and Southeast (Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina) regions. The higher
wages in the Northeast II and Southeast regions were mainly due to a higher
percentage of nursery and greenhouse workers in the work force. Wages in
the Northern and Southern Plains were higher due to fewer seasonal workers
on the payroll.

     Table 1 -- Florida agricultural workers, number of workers, wage
      rates, and hours worked, January 12 - 18, 2003, with comparisons
                                        Hired Workers
                     Number of workers          Wages Paid by Type of Work
  Employer, Year,          Expected to    Hours
        and                   work       Worked
    survey week                            Per
                    All    150     149           All   Field   Livestock
                                          Week
                           days    days
                         or more or less
  HIRED BY FARMERS
                         Thousands        Hours     Dollars Per Hour 1/
 2003
                      70
   January 12 - 18    .0   56 .0   14 .0  37 .2  8 .81  7.80      8.30
 2002
                      57
   October 6 - 12     .0   51 .0    6 .0  38 .9  8 .67  7.50      8.60
                      43
   July 7 - 13        .0   38 .0    5 .0  37 .5  8 .48  7.25      7.80
                      52
   April 7 - 13       .0   46 .0    6 .0  40 .6  8 .57  7.75      7.50
                      62
   January 6 - 12     .0   50 .0   12 .0  37 .2  8 .97  8.15      8.55
 2001
                      51
   October 7 - 13     .0   44 .0    7 .0  41 .8  8 .84  7.70      8.00
                      48
   July 8 - 14        .0   43 .0    5 .0  40 .8  8 .65  7.50      7.65
                      63
   April 8 - 14       .0   52 .0   11 .0  39 .9  8 .40  7.75      7.90
                      55
   January 7 - 13     .0   47 .0    8 .0  37 .6  8 .29  7.65      7.90
      HIRED BY
    AGRICULTURAL
      SERVICES
 2003
                      17
   January 12 - 18    .0                  32 .0  9 .35
 2002
   October 6 - 12   5 .0                  31 .5  9 .00
   July 7 - 13      4 .0                  42 .5  9 .25
                      11
   April 7 - 13       .0                  34 .0  9 .00
                      19
   January 6 - 12     .0                  38 .5  8 .25
 2001
   October 7 - 13   5 .0                  34 .0  8 .70
   July 8 - 14      2 .0                  43 .5  9 .54
                      14
   April 8 - 14       .0                  39 .0  8 .30
                      18
   January 7 - 13     .0                  29 .5  8 .70
   HIRED BY BOTH
     FARMERS &
    AGRICULTURAL
      SERVICES
 2003
                      87
   January 12 - 18    .0                         8 .90
 2002
                      62
   October 6 - 12     .0                         8 .69
                      47
   July 7 - 13        .0                         8 .55
                      63
   April 7 - 13       .0                         8 .63
                      81
   January 6 - 12     .0                         8 .80
 2001
                      56
   October 7 - 13     .0                         8 .83
                      50
   July 8 - 14        .0                         8 .69
                      77
   April 8 - 14       .0                         8 .38
                      73
   January 7 - 13     .0                         8 .37
 1/ Benefits, such as housing and meals, are provided some workers but the
 values are not included in the wage rates.

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    Table 2 -- Number of workers hired by farmers, wage rates, and hours
                                  worked,
        selected States, January 12 - 18, 2003, with comparisons 1/
                                                Arizona
     Item       Florida  California   Texas &      &    Hawaii    United
                                     Oklahoma     New           States 2/
                                                Mexico
                                         Thousands
 All hired workers
     January 12
 - 18, 2003           70         230        50       22       7        724
     October 6
 - 12, 2002           57       * 270        58       19       8      * 940
     January 6
 - 12, 2002           62         186        61       18       8        707
 Expected to work
   150 days or more
     January 12
 - 18, 2003           56         190        40       20       6        609
     October 6
 - 12, 2002           51       * 222        46       16       7      * 685
     January 6
 - 12, 2002           50         145        54       16       7        584
    149 days or less
     January 12
 - 18, 2003           14          40        10        2       1        115
     October 6
 - 12, 2002            6        * 48        12        3       1      * 255
     January 6
 - 12, 2002           12          41         7        2       1        123
                                    Dollars per hour 3/
 All hired worker wage rate
     January 12
 - 18, 2003         8.81        9.38      8.85     8.12   11.04       9.32
     October 6
 - 12, 2002         8.67      * 9.39      7.57     8.25   11.02     * 8.95
     January 6
 - 12, 2002         8.97        9.22      8.05     8.42   10.90       8.97
 Wages by type of worker
   Field & Livestock
     January 12
 - 18, 2003         7.87        8.46      8.29     7.48    9.36       8.50
     October 6
 - 12, 2002         7.72      * 8.68      7.18     7.42    9.32     * 8.36
     January 6
 - 12, 2002         8.20        8.36      7.57     7.85    9.33       8.23
    Field
     January 12
 - 18, 2003         7.80        8.20      8.13     6.92    9.31       8.29
     October 6
 - 12, 2002         7.50      * 8.60      7.05     7.07    9.25     * 8.34
     January 6
 - 12, 2002         8.15        8.25      7.82     7.57    9.36       8.25
    Livestock
     January 12
 - 18, 2003         8.30       10.10      8.51     8.22      4/       8.91
     October 6
 - 12, 2002         8.60      * 9.30      7.32     8.24      4/     * 8.42
     January 6
 - 12, 2002         8.55        9.69      7.37     8.48      4/       8.20
                                  Average hours per week
 Hours worked by all hired workers
     January 12
 - 18, 2003         37.2        41.2      37.9     47.2    37.9       37.8
     October 6
 - 12, 2002         38.9        45.5      41.7     45.7    37.9       40.4
     January 6
 - 12, 2002         37.2        42.1      41.5     47.7    37.0       38.5
 1/ Excludes Agricultural Service workers.
 2/ United States excludes Alaska.
 3/ Value of any perquisites provided are not included in wage rates.
 4/ Insufficient data for this category; included in all hired wages.
 * Revised.

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                    Reliability of Farm Labor Estimates

   Survey Procedures: These data were collected by the National
Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) during the last two weeks of January
using sampling procedures to ensure every employer of agricultural workers
had a chance of being selected.

  Two samples of farm operators are selected. First, NASS maintains a list
of farms that hire farm workers. Farms on this list are classified by size
and type. Those expected to employ large numbers of workers are selected
with greater frequency than those hiring few or no workers. A second sample
consists of segments of land scientifically selected from an area sampling
frame. Each June, highly trained interviewers locate each selected land
segment and identify every farm operating land within the sample segment's
boundaries. The names of farms found in these area segments are matched
against the NASS list of farms; those not found on the list are included in
the labor survey sample to represent all farms. This methodology is known
as multiple frame sampling, with an area sample used to measure the
incompleteness of the list. Additionally, a list of agricultural service
firms was sampled in California and Florida. The survey reference week was
January 12-18, 2003.

   Reliability: Two types of errors, sampling and non- sampling, are always
present in an estimate based on a sample survey. Both types affect the
"accuracy" of the estimates. Sampling error occurs because a complete
census is not taken. The sampling error measures the variation in estimates
from the average of all possible samples. An estimate of 100 with a
sampling error of 1 would mean that chances are 19 out of 20 that the
estimates from all possible samples averaged together would be between 98
and 102; which is the survey estimate, plus or minus two times the sampling
error. The sampling error expressed as a percent of the estimate is called
the relative sampling error. The relative sampling error for number of
hired workers at the U.S. level is normally less than 5 percent. The
relative sampling error
     for the number of hired workers generally ranged between 11 and 23
percent at the regional level. The U.S. all hired farm worker wage rate had
a relative sampling error of 1.0 percent. The relative sampling error was
0.8 percent for the combined field and livestock worker wage rate. Relative
sampling errors for the all hired farm worker wage rategenerally ranged
between 2 and 6 percent at the regional levels. Relative sampling errors
for wage rates published by type of farm and economic class of farm ranged
between 1 and 21 percent at the regional level.

  Non-sampling errors can occur in a complete census as well as in sample
surveys. They are caused by the inability to obtain correct information
from each operation sampled, differences in interpreting questions or
definitions, and mistakes in editing, coding or processing the data.
Special efforts are taken at each step of the survey to minimize non-
sampling errors.

  Revision Policy: Farm labor information is subject to revision the next
time the information is published or the year after the original
publication date. The basis for revision must be supported by additional
data that directly affect the level of the estimate. Worker numbers and
wage rates for January 2002 and October 2002 were subject to revision with
this report. Revisions were made and previous data are reprinted in this
report for your information.

   Next Farm Labor Publication Date: The May 16th report will have
information for the survey week of April 6- 12, 2003. The report will
include the number of All Hired Workers, Average Hours Worked by Hired
Workers and the All Hired Worker Wage Rates at the regional and U.S.
levels. The wage rate for field, livestock, and combined field and
livestock workers will also be available at the regional and U.S. level.
The number of Agricultural Service Workers and the corresponding wage rates
will be published for California and Florida.

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