Jason P. Brown

Jeremy G. Weber

The Off-Farm Occupations 

of U.S. Farm Operators 

and Their Spouses

Economic

Research

Service

Economic 

Information

Bulletin 

Number 117 

September 2013

United States Department of Agriculture
Economic Research Service 

www.ers.usda.gov

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Recommended citation format for this publication:

Brown, Jason P. and Jeremy G. Weber. The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. 

Farm Operators and Their Spouses, EIB-117, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Economic Research Service, September 2013.

Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. 
United States Department of Agriculture

Economic

Research

Service

Economic

Information

Bulletin

Number 117

September 2013 Abstract

Because of the broad definition of a farm—which includes numerous small operations 

that produce little or no agricultural commodities in any given year—most farm households earn all of their income from nonfarm sources. However, even those operating 

farms with substantial production often have significant nonfarm income. Most nonfarm 

income, in turn, comes from off-farm jobs. Industry and occupation information collected 

by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey 

(ARMS) provides one indication of how the skills demanded and cultivated on the farm 

influence off-farm employment incentives and opportunities. Consistent with the notion 

that farming requires substantial management skills, this study finds that when farm 

operators and their spouses work off farm, they are most likely to hold a management or 

professional occupation. This is especially true for households operating larger farms.

Keywords: occupation, industry, off-farm income, ARMS

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mary Ahearn, Hisham El-Osta, Robert Gibbs, Sarah Low, and 

Timothy Wojan of USDA, Economic Research Service for their comments, as well as 

several anonymous reviewers. The authors also thank Susmita Pendurthi for editing and 

preparing the report for publication and Wynnice Pointer-Napper for the design and layout 

of the report.

Jason P. Brown

Jeremy G. Weber, jeweber@ers.usda.gov

The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. 

Farm Operators and Their Spouses
ii

The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. Farm Operators and Their Spouses, EIB-117 

Economic Research Service/USDA

Contents

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Farm Operators and Spouses and Nonfarm Workers: Comparing 

Occupations and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Off-Farm Occupations, Education, and Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Off-Farm Occupation and Wages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Off-Farm Occupation and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Farm Size and Off-Farm Industry and Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Appendix: Industry and Occupation Questions From the Agricultural 

Resource Management Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
United States Department of Agriculture

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analysis from the U.S. 

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providing timely information on economic and policy 

issues related to agriculture, 

food, the environment,and 

rural America. www.ers.usda.gov

Jason P. Brown

Jeremy G. Weber

The Off-Farm Occupations 

of U.S. Farm Operators 

and Their Spouses

Economic

Research

Service

Economic 

Information

Bulletin 

Number 117 

September 2013

United States Department of Agriculture

September 2013

Find the full report at 

www.ers.usda.gov/

publications/eib-economic-informationbulletin/eib-117.aspx

What Is the Issue?

Because of the broad definition of a farm—which includes numerous small operations that produce 

little or no agricultural commodities in any given year—most farm households earn all of their 

income from nonfarm sources. However, even those operating farms with substantial production 

often have significant nonfarm income. Most nonfarm income, in turn, comes from off-farm jobs. 

Since farm household income has increased more than the income of the typical U.S. household 

over the last 15 years, based largely on higher nonfarm incomes, a closer examination of what 

farm operators and their spouses do to earn their nonfarm income is warranted. Are there complementarities between what farm household members do on and off the farm that could explain past 

income trends? Looking forward, as the skills demanded and nurtured on the farm change with 

evolving technologies, particularly on larger farms, how will the opportunities and compensation for 

off-farm jobs change for farm operators and their spouses? Prior research has shown the importance 

of distinguishing between what people “make” (industry) versus what they “do” (occupation). This 

report describes the most common occupations and industries of off-farm wage and salary jobs held 

by the operators of family farms and their spouses. 

What Did the Study Find?

Most farm households (91 percent) have at least one family member working at an off-farm 

job. Of farm operators and their spouses with off-farm jobs, 35.9 percent held professional and 

management occupations in 2010. This is higher than for metropolitan area workers in general 

(31.6 percent) or for nonmetropolitan workers (25.3 percent). Operators of larger farms and 

their spouses reported the highest shares of management and professional occupations in their 

off-farm jobs, suggesting that they have a high capacity to apply their knowledge and skills 

from managing a sizeable farm operation to other areas of employment.

• Farm operators and their spouses are more likely than other workers to have management 

and professional off-farm occupations.

• Management and professional occupations paid higher wages on average than other occupations. 

For farm operators, management occupations paid $7 an hour more (on average) than the next 

highest paying occupation (sales and office support), and nearly double that paid by service occupations or those in production, transportation, and materials moving. Although the wage differences are more modest for spouses, management occupations still paid them 21 percent more 

than the next highest paying occupation.

• Professional and management occupations were most commonly held by operators and spouses 

with a college education. For them, 56.2 percent of operators and 60.6 percent of spouses had a 

Jason P. Brown and Jeremy G. Weber

The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. Farm 

Operators and Their Spouses
www.ers.usda.gov

professional and management occupation. The same was true for only 16.9 percent of operators and 

20.5 percent of spouses who worked off farm but who only had a high school education. Operators 

with only a high school education were most likely to have an occupation in production, transportation, and materials moving (32.3 percent), while spouses were most likely to work in services (45.3 

percent).

• Regarding the industry of off-farm employment, farm operators primarily worked in the construction 

(18.7 percent); agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining (15.3 percent); or manufacturing (12.9 

percent) industries, while their spouses most often worked in education (22.3 percent) or healthcare 

(19.7 percent). Operators of farms with less than $50,000 in annual sales had higher shares of jobs in 

the manufacturing and construction industries, while operators of larger farms (with higher annual 

sales) had the highest shares in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining industry. 

According to the literature on the U.S. labor market, the gap between wages for skilled and unskilled 

labor in the United States has widened, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Combined 

with this growing disparity, evidence of higher skills among farm households, especially those with 

larger farms, provides one explanation for their relatively higher income growth in the last 15 years.

How Was the Study Conducted?

Farm-level information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2010 Agricultural Resource 

Management Survey (ARMS) was used to examine the occupation and industry of the off-farm jobs 

held by farm operators and their spouses who reported having off-farm labor income. The 2010 ARMS 

is the first year in which both the off-farm occupation and the industry type of the off-farm job has 

been asked of farm operators and spouses. Farm and household characteristics reported on the ARMS 

allow for comparisons across farm types, education levels, and age. This study also makes comparisons 

to national occupational data of nonfarm industries provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Share of workers in off-farm management and professional occupations, 2010

Percent with management and professional occupations

Note: The subsample of farms includes only family farm households with married couples where the operator or

spouse works off farm. Occupation by farm size refers to the occupation of the farm operator.

Sources: USDA, Economic Research Service using the 2010 Occupational Employment Statistics of the Bureau of 

Labor Statistics for area-wide occupations and USDA's 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1 

for farm household member occupations.

Nonmetropolitan

workers

Metropolitan 

workers

Farm operators

and spouses - 

all farms

Farms with less 

than $50,000

in sales

Farms with 

$50,000 - 

$249,999

in sales

Farms with 

$250,000 or more 

in sales

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50
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The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. Farm 

Operators and Their Spouses

Jason P. Brown and Jeremy G. Weber

Introduction

The typical family farm household in the United States derives all of its income from off-farm 

sources. This, in part, reflects a broadly defined farm population, where small farms—often with 

potential annual sales of as little as $1,000—account for 90.9 percent of all farms (Hoppe and 

MacDonald, 2013). However, even households operating larger farms often have substantial nonfarm 

income: in 2011, median off-farm income was $29,250 for households with family farms with 

$250,000 or more in annual sales (USDA ERS, 2012a).1 There have been many studies about the 

participation of family farm households in off-farm labor markets (Huffman, 1980; Huffman and 

Lange, 1989), and extensive literature documents the relationships between labor market participation 

and characteristics such as farm size, education, and access to health insurance (El-Osta et al., 2008; 

El-Osta, 2011; Mishra et al., 2012; Mishra and Chang, 2012). 

To date, however, almost nothing has been said about the industry (what they make) or occupation (what they do) of farm household members employed off the farm. Such industry and occupation information can reveal how the skills demanded and cultivated on the farm influence off-farm 

employment incentives and opportunities. Occupation data can be particularly revealing since knowledge and skills are two important characteristics that distinguish one occupation from another (Feser, 

2003; Koo, 2005). 

The importance of human capital for agricultural technology adoption and farm management has 

long been recognized (Schultz, 1964; Rahm and Huffman, 1984), so we might expect farm operators 

and spouses to have occupations demanding substantial knowledge and skills. Evidence suggests that 

the gap between wages for skilled and unskilled labor in the U.S. labor market has increased, with 

the gap widening substantially in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Autor et al., 2008). If farm households tend to work in more highly skilled occupations, it could help explain why their incomes have 

grown relative to the incomes of U.S. households in general over the last 15 years. From 1991 to 1997, 

median farm household income (which is driven almost entirely by off-farm income) was consistently 

less than median U.S. household income (fig. 1). Since 1998, however, the opposite has been true 

(USDA ERS, 2012a). The reversal may reflect greater returns to farm household skills employed off 

the farm, in addition to other factors such as changes in the composition of the farm population. 

1The current definition of a family farm is one in which the majority of the business is owned by the operator and 

individuals related to the operator by blood, marriage, or adoption (including relatives who do not live in the operator 

household). Although the definition of a family farm has changed somewhat over time, the share of U.S. farms classified 

as family farms (between 97.1 and 98.3 percent of all farms) has changed little since 1996 (USDA ERS, 2012c). Nonfamily farms are excluded from the current analysis because it is difficult to ascertain influential factors on off-farm labor 

participation decisions.
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While data on the occupations and industries of off-farm jobs are not routinely collected from 

farm households,2 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2010 Agricultural Resource 

Management Survey (ARMS) asked respondents for the occupation of the operator’s and/or 

spouse’s off-farm job, which complemented an existing question about their off-farm employer’s 

type of business. This report provides a detailed look at this information for farm households with 

married couples, identifying the occupational profile of the off-farm employment of operators and 

spouses given their educational attainment, age, and farm size, as well as the industrial sector of 

their off-farm employment.

2A question on the 2003 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) asked for information on the off-farm 

occupation of farm operators reporting nonfarm wage and salary income (using a nonstandard classification of occupational choices), but no information was collected on the industrial sector. In other years, information on the off-farm 

industry was collected in ARMS, but not on the off-farm occupation.

Figure 1

Median household income for farm and U.S. households, 1991-2011

Income (1,000 $)

Sources: The USDA’s Farm Cost and Returns Survey (1991-1995) and Agricultural Resource Management Survey 

(1996-2011). U.S. median household income is from the Current Population Survey, U.S. Census Bureau.

1991 93 95 97 99 2001 03 05 07 09 11

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

Farm households

U.S. households
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Data 

The study’s data are from the 2010 ARMS.3 Since 2004, the survey has asked respondents to indicate the industry associated with the off-farm employment of the operator and spouse.4 A followup 

question in 2010 asked for the occupation of the off-farm job. This study’s analysis focuses on the 

principal operator and spouse of family farm households, where both the operator and spouse were 

present in the 2010 ARMS and wage and salary income information was complete. This subsample 

represents 81 percent of all survey respondents (4,773 households) in Version 1 of the 2010 ARMS.5

Weighted, these represent over 1.46 million farm households in the contiguous United States. The 

national tabulations of occupational types in metropolitan (metro) and nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) 

areas draw on national occupation data from the Occupational Employment Statistics Program of the 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (USDOL-BLS, 2010).

The focus on married couples is because research has shown that household resource-allocation 

decisions are made jointly by married couples operating family farms (El-Osta et al., 2008). 

Operators with spouses likely face different off-farm employment opportunities and incentives than 

those without spouses. For more informative comparisons, operators without spouses are therefore 

excluded, and all statistics reflect the same subsample of married operators and their spouses. 

3For more information on the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), see the Economic Research Service’s ARMS Farm Financial and Crop Production Practices page at http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/arms-farmfinancial-and-crop-production-practices.aspx.

4For more information, see the Economic Research Service’s Labor Allocations & Age page at http://www.ers.usda.

gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/labor-allocations.aspx.

5The Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) has several versions, all of which use different questionnaires. Only Version 1 of the 2010 ARMS asked questions about occupations. 
4

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Farm Operators and Spouses and Nonfarm Workers: 

Comparing Occupations and Education

This study compares the shares of occupation types and educational attainment between farm households and the general population separated into metro and nonmetro areas (table 1). Farm households 

live primarily in nonmetro areas, so differences between nonfarm workers and farm households in 

nonmetro areas are less likely to reflect differences in available occupations where the populations 

live.6 In 2010, more than one-third of the farm operators and spouses working off farm had management and professional occupations, which is 10.6 percentage points higher than for nonmetro nonfarm 

workers. Only 10.3 percent of the farm operators and their spouses had occupations classified as sales 

and office support. In contrast, a quarter of nonfarm workers in nonmetro areas had such occupations. 

Arguably, management and professional jobs are more common in metro areas. Therefore, it is noteworthy that the share of farm operators and spouses working at management and professional occupations was 4.3 percentage points higher than for nonfarm workers in metro areas. 

We can conclude from table 1, as well as from figures 2 and 3, that farm operators are more likely to 

hold management and professional occupations than any other occupation. The same is true of their 

spouses to an even greater degree. 

6Metropolitan (metro) and nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) designations are based on the Office of Management and 

Budget’s adoption of the 2010 Standards for Delineating Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. Metro areas 

have an urban cluster of at least 50,000 in population. Micropolitan areas have an urban core of at least 10,000, but less 

than 50,000. Nonmetro is the residual category for places with less than 10,000 in population. About 60 percent of farm 

households are located in nonmetro areas, and the remainder are in rural portions of metro counties.

Table 1

Off-farm occupational and educational attainment of nonfarm wage and salary earners

All metropolitanarea workers All nonmetropolitanarea workersFarm 

households

 Percent 

Occupation

Management & professional 31.6 25.3 35.9

Services 20.2 21.5 31.9

Sales & office support 28.0 25.0 10.3

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 7.8 10.1 9.5

Production, transportation, & materials moving 12.4 18.1 12.4

Educational attainment

Less than a high school diploma 14.7 17.6 9.3

Completed high school 27.4 36.8 37.7

Completed some college 28.0 28.1 27.1

Completed college 29.9 17.5 25.9

Note: The “Farm households” column refers specifically to the farm operator and spouse, and does not include all household 

members.

Sources: Area-wide occupation is from the 2010 Occupational Employment Statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Farm 

household characteristics are from the USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), Version 1. The 

subsample only includes family farm households with married couples; sample size = 4,773; farms = 1, 468,962. Operator 

and spouse responses were totaled across each occupation and educational category. Area-wide educational attainment is 

from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 5-year average (2006 to 2010). Information on the variances in 

the non-ARMS statistics were not available to test for statistical differences across the groups.
5

The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. Farm Operators and Their Spouses, EIB-117

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There are several possible explanations for why farm operators and their spouses are more likely to 

have management or professional occupations. First, households with management or professional 

skills may be more likely to enter the farm population. Their skills may have allowed them to earn 

high incomes and accumulate enough wealth to begin farming or their skills themselves may have 

been uniquely suited for managing a farm business. Second, managing a farm may have cultivated 

Figure 2

Farm operators’ off-farm occupations

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. The percentages may not sum to 100% 

due to rounding.

Source: USDA, 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.

Management and professional

Services Sales and office support

Natural resources, construction, 

and maintenance

Production, transportation, 

and materials moving

31.4%

26.3%

6.4%

16.2%

19.6%

Figure 3

Off-farm occupations of the spouses of farm operators

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. The percentages may not sum to 100% 

due to rounding.

Source: USDA, 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.

Management 

and professional

Services

Sales and office support

Natural resources, construction, and maintenance

Production, transportation, and materials moving

40.1%

37.1%

14.0%

3.2%

5.6%
6

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the skills that are valued and required by management and professional occupations. Third, farm 

operators and their spouses are, on average, older than the U.S. adult population in general (USDA 

ERS, 2012b). Experience increases with age, which may position the older members of farm households for management occupations.

The statistics on educational attainment (table 1) could also support the explanation that farm 

households have management and professional occupations because of their experience. Similar to 

nonfarm workers in nonmetro areas, the most common educational attainment of farm operators 

and their spouses is high school. However, the share of farm household operators and spouses with 

a management and professional occupation is more than 10 percentage points higher. Similarly, a 

greater share of nonfarm workers in metro areas completed college compared to farm operators and 

spouses, yet the latter group is more likely to work in management and professional occupations. 

Although education likely complements experience, the hands-on experience gained on the farm 

may help to compensate for less formal education.
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Off-Farm Occupations, Education, and Age 

The likelihood of having a management and professional occupation increases with education, 

suggesting that such occupations indeed require more skills and training than other occupations 

(table 2). For both farm operators and their spouses, more than half of college graduates had 

management and professional jobs. In contrast, operators with only a high school education were 

more likely to work in a production, transportation, or materials-moving occupation. Spouses with 

only a high school education tended to work in service occupations. 

We also analyzed the age distribution of farm operators and spouses in relation to their off-farm 

occupations. Older people often have more experience, which in turn affects their occupational 

possibilities. This study splits the sample by age, using 45 as the cutoff point because it represents a 

mid-career point and the peak of off-farm labor participation among farm operators (El-Osta et al., 

2008). (The average ages for operators and spouses in the sample were 58 and 56). Operators and 

spouses older than 45 reported higher shares of management and professional occupations, which 

supports the notion that experience opens opportunities for management occupations. In general, 

however, the differences in occupations across age groups are small. The largest difference is with 

occupations in natural resources, construction, and maintenance, which employ 22.8 percent of operators 45 or younger versus 14.2 percent of older operators. This difference may reflect the physical 

demands of these occupations, which become more burdensome with age.

Table 2

Occupation of farm household members employed off farm, by educational attainment and age

High 

school 

Some

college

College

degree 

(BA, BS) 

≤ 45 years 

old

> 45 years 

old

Percent

Operator (n = 2,786) (n = 1,745) (n = 1,726) (n =788) (n = 3,985)

Management & professional 16.9 30.4 56.2 27.9 32.5

Services 22.4 26.6 16.9 24.6 26.8

Sales & office support 3.1 6.0 8.5 7.2 6.2

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 25.3 18.4 11.5 22.8 14.2

Production, transportation, & materials moving 32.3 18.6 6.9 17.5 20.3

Spouse (n = 2,151) (n = 1,591) (n = 2,737) (n = 1,003) (n = 3,770)

Management & professional 20.5 39.2 60.6 38.1 40.9

Services 45.3 39.4 27.0 40.3 35.9

Sales & office support 17.1 14.0 6.0 12.0 14.7

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 4.6 2.7 3.1 4.6 2.6

Production, transportation, & materials moving 12.5 4.7 3.4 5.0 5.8

Notes: The subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Column totals may not sum to 100 percent due to 

rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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Off-Farm Occupation and Wages

If management and professional occupations require more education and skill than other occupations, we would expect them to pay higher wages. To analyze this, we estimated a wage rate for 

operators and spouses by dividing their wage and salary income by their reported hours worked off 

farm during the year (table 3). We found that, on average, management occupations do pay higher 

wages. The wage gap between management occupations and other occupations is greatest for farm 

operators. For them, management occupations pay on average $7 an hour more than the next highest 

paying occupation (sales and office support) and nearly double that paid by service occupations or 

those in production, transportation, and materials moving. Although the wage differences are more 

modest for spouses, management occupations still pay them 21 percent more than the next highest 

paying occupation.

Table 3

Average hourly wages by occupation ($/hour)

Operator Spouse

Occupation (n = 1,926) (n = 2,244)

Management & professional 40 23

Services 22 16

Sales & office support 33 18

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 26 19

Production, transportation, & materials moving 22 18

Note: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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Off-Farm Occupation and Industry 

When employed off farm, farm operators principally worked in the construction; agriculture, 

forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining; or manufacturing industries. Their spouses predominantly 

worked in education or healthcare services (table 4). 

The differences between the off-farm industries (and occupations) of farm operators and their 

spouses likely reflect differences in household and farm responsibilities, as well as how off-farm 

employment opportunities complement and meet key household needs. For example, if the operator 

works on the farm full-time, the household may be able to obtain health insurance through the 

spouse’s job. This may explain, in part, why so many spouses work in the education and healthcare 

industries, which often offer benefits like health insurance. Complementarity between on-farm 

responsibilities and off-farm jobs can also shape occupational choices. After education and health 

care, the next most common industrial sector for the spouse’s job is in finance, insurance, real estate, 

and other professional services. This could partly reflect the accounting responsibilities for the 

farm’s finances that spouses often assume.

Combining industry and occupation data, we use the industries with the two highest shares of participation for both operators and spouses to develop industry-occupation profiles. Table 5 reports occupation shares for operators within the construction and agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining 

industries, and occupation shares for spouses within the education and healthcare services industries.

Operator occupations within the construction industry were mostly in natural resources, construction, and maintenance. Farmers often need mechanical and building skills on the farm, which makes 

construction a likely off-farm occupation. In addition, farm operators routinely use their trucks and 

tractors and other heavy equipment to move materials or perform field or other excavating activities 

for other farmers or businesses (common examples of transportation or materials-moving occupations). Within the agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining industry, a third of the operators 

Table 4

Industrial sector of off-farm employment for farm household members

Operator Spouse

Percent

Industrial sector

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining 15.3 7.9

Construction 18.7 4.0

Manufacturing 12.9 5.1

Education services 6.4 22.3

Healthcare services 4.7 19.7

Government services 10.2 9.2

Wholesale trade, warehousing, utilities, or transportation 10.8 2.2

Finance, insurance, real estate, or other professional services 6.5 12.7

Recreation or tourism 1.4 1.0

Retail trade or personal services 7.6 11.0

Other nongovernment services 5.6 5.0

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Column totals may not sum to 

100 percent due to rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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have management and professional occupations (which can include managing farm-related businesses such as trucking or custom harvesting). 

Among spouse industry-occupation profiles, management and professional occupations and service 

occupations were most common in education services. Typical examples of these occupations 

include teachers, school administrators, administrative staff, and teachers’ aides. Services and 

management and professional occupations accounted for the largest shares of spouse employment in 

healthcare services. Examples of service occupations in healthcare include nurses (nonregistered) 

and any type of medical aide, assistant, or transcriptionist. Possible management and professional 

occupations in the sector are doctors, pharmacists, registered nurses, or clinic managers. 

Table 5

Industry-occupation profiles of farm operators and spouses employed off farm

Construction

Agriculture, forestry, 

fishing, hunting, 

or mining

Percent

Operator

Management & professional 13.3 (2.4) 33.9 (5.1)

Services 22.9 (4.1) 26.8 (4.0)

Sales & office support 3.6 (0.7) 6.1 (0.9)

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 46.4 (8.4) 11.5 (1.7) 

Production, transportation, & materials moving 13.9 (2.5) 21.7 (3.2)

Education 

services

Healthcare 

services

Spouse

Management & professional 60.8 (13.3) 37.1 (7.1)

Services 30.0 (6.6) 54.3 (10.5)

Sales & office support 3.3 (0.7) 6.4 (1.2)

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 4.3 (0.9) 0.4 (0.1)

Production, transportation, & materials moving 1.6 (0.4) 1.9 (0.4)

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Numbers in parentheses are the 

percentages of all industry-occupation types in the sample. Column totals may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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Farm Size and Off-Farm Industry and Occupation

Farms of different sizes have different skill and labor needs, which affect the incentives and opportunities for farm operators and their spouses to work off farm. As farm size increases, off-farm 

income contributes less to total household income (USDA ERS, 2012a). We split the farm households in the study group into three sales categories based on the annual gross sales of their farms 

(table 6): less than $50,000 in sales (75 percent), $50,000 to $249,999 in sales (14 percent), and 

$250,000 and above in sales (11 percent).

The operators of farms with less than $50,000 in sales reported higher shares of employment in the 

construction and manufacturing industries. For larger farms, operators mainly worked in the agricultural, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining industry—these operators (who have farms with substantial 

crop or livestock production) likely possess an advantage in off-farm jobs in agriculture. The industry 

sectors of spouses’ off-farm jobs were similar across different-sized farms. In all three farm-size cateTable 6

Industry types for operators and spouses employed off farm, by farm size

Size of farm (annual farm sales)

< $50,000

$50,000 - 

$249,999

$250,000 

or more

Percent

Operator

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining 12.9 26.5 35.3

Construction 19.7 14.7 9.0

Manufacturing 13.2 12.7 6.6

Education services 6.2 7.0 8.9

Healthcare services 5.3 1.6 1.3

Government services 10.4 7.3 13.4

Wholesale trade, warehousing, utilities, or transportation 10.8 12.0 5.9

Finance, insurance, real estate, or other professional services 6.7 5.3 6.8

Recreation or tourism 1.6 0.2 0.0

Retail trade or personal services 7.7 6.6 8.1

Other nongovernment services 5.6 6.1 4.8

Spouse

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining 6.9 9.9 12.1

Construction 4.3 3.8 2.2

Manufacturing 6.1 2.3 2.0

Education services 22.0 21.4 25.3

Healthcare services 20.0 18.9 19.0

Government services 9.1 9.9 8.9

Wholesale trade, warehousing, utilities, or transportation 2.0 2.1 3.6

Finance, insurance, real estate, or other professional services 12.9 11.7 12.1

Recreation or tourism 0.9 1.3 0.6

Retail trade or personal services 11.1 12.6 8.8

Other nongovernment services 4.7 6.2 5.6

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Column totals may not sum to 

100 percent due to rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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gories, the education and healthcare services sectors accounted for the largest shares of off-farm jobs 

held by spouses. This is logical because spouses working off farm are less likely to be as involved with 

day-to-day farm work and management, unless they serve as a secondary operator.

Both operators and spouses associated with larger farms were more likely to have management and 

professional occupations than those associated with smaller farms (table 7). Households operating 

larger farms generally possess the management skills to run a financially viable business—skills 

likely to be valuable in off-farm employment. Operators of the smallest farms we examine held 

management and professional jobs at about the same rate as U.S. workers in general, while the operators of larger farms held jobs in this occupational category at progressively higher rates (fig. 4).

Differences in education between operators and spouses operating larger farms versus smaller farms 

may also help explain differences in the distribution of off-farm occupations. Completion of high 

school is the most common level of educational attainment for both operators and spouses across 

all farm sizes, with the exception of spouses on farms with sales of $250,000 or more (table 8). 

However, the share of operators having completed college was the highest for farms with sales of 

$250,000 or more. This may help explain why management and professional occupations were more 

common among operators and spouses running larger farms (as reported in table 5). It also suggests 

that formal education matters for managing a larger farm in contemporary U.S. agriculture.7

Among farm operators, educational attainment does not consistently increase between small and 

medium-sized farms, however. Operators with at least some college account for 51.6 percent of 

operators of the smallest farms we examined; the same is true for 45.5 percent of operators in our 

7The fact that nearly as many small farm operators have college degrees is more likely to reflect their off-farm occupational goals rather than the educational requirements of running a small farm.

Table 7

Occupation of farm operators and spouses employed off farm, by farm size

Size of farm (annual farm sales)

< $50,000

$50,000 - 

$249,999

$250,000 

or more

Percent

Operator

Management & professional 30.3 35.0 44.4

Services 26.3 26.8 24.4

Sales & office support 6.2 7.0 9.5

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 17.4 8.1 13.8

Production, transportation, & materials moving 19.8 23.0 7.9

Spouse

Management & professional 39.5 40.5 43.7

Services 37.0 39.7 34.6

Sales & office support 14.5 12.0 13.1

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 3.3 3.2 2.7

Production, transportation, & materials moving 5.8 4.6 5.9

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Column totals may not sum to 

100 percent due to rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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midsized farm category. This may reflect cases where higher education allows a household to accumulate the wealth that gives it the financial flexibility to enter farming in a small way, primarily as a 

second career or as part of retirement.

Smaller farms have less labor demands, allowing farm households to allocate more labor to off-farm 

employment. Certain occupations may also provide the flexibility often needed by farm operators 

Figure 4

Share of workers in off-farm management and professional occupations, 2010

Percent with management and professional occupations

Note: The subsample of farms includes only family farm households with married couples where the operator or

spouse works off farm. Occupation by farm size refers to the occupation of the farm operator.

Sources: USDA, Economic Research Service using the 2010 Occupational Employment Statistics of the Bureau of 

Labor Statistics for area-wide occupations and USDA's 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1 

for farm household member occupations.

Nonmetropolitan

workers

Metropolitan 

workers

Farm operators

and spouses - 

all farms

Farms with less 

than $50,000 

in sales

Farms with 

$50,000 - 

$249,999

in sales

Farms with 

$250,000 or more 

in sales

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Table 8

Educational attainment of farm operators and spouses employed off farm, by farm size

Size of farm (annual farm sales)

< $50,000

$50,000 - 

$249,999

$250,000 

or more

Percent

Operator

Some high school or less 10.7 13.1 6.8

Completed high school 37.6 41.4 34.9

Some college 26.5 24.2 30.4

Completed college (BA, BS) 25.1 21.3 27.9

Spouse

Some high school or less 8.0 10.6 4.3

Completed high school 39.4 34.7 28.3

Some college 26.2 29.5 34.7

Completed college (BA, BS) 26.5 25.3 32.7

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. Column totals may not sum to 

100 percent due to rounding.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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and their spouses. Estimates of the average annual hours worked off farm for operators and spouses 

are reported for each occupation category by farm size in table 9. The distribution of operator 

hours in their off-farm jobs is fairly uniform across occupations—as expected, the average number 

of hours worked off farm decreases with farm size. However, operators on farms with less than 

$50,000 in sales, and who had production, transportation, or materials-moving occupations, reported 

working more hours on average than operators of similar-sized farms with other occupations. 

Similarly, operators of farms with sales of $250,000 or more, who had management and professional 

occupations, reported working more hours on average than operators of similar-sized farms with 

other occupations. 

Estimates of annual hours for spouses who worked off farm are also fairly uniform across occupations. The average annual hours for spouses were highest in natural resource, construction, and 

maintenance occupations for households operating farms with less than $250,000 in sales. Spouses 

in households operating farms with $250,000 or more in sales reported much lower numbers of 

hours worked off farm. 

Table 9

Average annual labor hours worked at off-farm jobs, by farm size and occupation

(hours/year)

Size of farm (annual farm sales)

< $50,000

$50,000 - 

$249,999

$250,000 

or more

Operator

Management & professional 1,806 1,458 1,333

Services 1,599 1,865 1,217

Sales & office support 1,839 1,409 1,168

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 1,896 1,593 1,194

Production, transportation, & materials moving 2,147 1,873 1,059

Weighted average across all occupations 1,832 1,664 1,241

Spouse

Management & professional 1,341 790 219

Services 1,351 1,145 118

Sales & office support 1,302 766 236

Natural resources, construction, & maintenance 1,579 1,474 97

Production, transportation, & materials moving 1,329 638 241

Weighted average across all occupations 1,346 910 222

Notes: Subsample used only includes family farm households with married couples. The annual estimate is derived using the 

sum of the average hours worked off farm in each quarter multiplied by the number of weeks in each quarter.

Source: USDA’s 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Version 1.
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Conclusion

Many farms have little agricultural production, so it is not surprising that many farm operators and 

their spouses have off-farm jobs. It is also not surprising that the most common off-farm occupation 

is in a management or professional position. This finding is consistent with the reality that even farm 

households with little production have substantial wealth, which suggests that, as a group, they have 

historically had high nonfarm incomes. 

The study’s key finding, however, reflects more than the prevalence of high-income professionals 

with a farm that barely has enough agricultural activity to meet the definition of a farm (e.g., having 

several horses). The skills required to manage a profitable farm in the United States have arguably 

increased with the advent of sophisticated production and information technologies and approaches 

to managing the risks of volatile prices and weather. Consistent with the notion that farming requires 

substantial management skills, operators and spouses associated with large farms had the highest 

participation in professional and management occupations when working off farm. 

Knowledge of the off-farm occupations of farm operators and their spouses is helpful in understanding past trends in farm household well-being, and hints at future off-farm job opportunities 

for those running successful farm businesses. The prevalence of management and professional 

occupations may help explain recent changes in the income of farm households compared to U.S. 

households in general. While other factors, such as changes to unearned income or the composition of the farm population, may also play a role, this report suggests that the labor of the typical 

farm household is more skilled than that of the typical U.S. household. Combined with a growing 

disparity between the wages for skilled and unskilled labor, evidence of higher skills among farm 

households provides one explanation for their relatively better income growth. Looking forward, 

the evidence that the skills required to operate a successful farm business may also influence offfarm job opportunities suggests that as farm businesses continue to become more complex, the 

evolving skills and adaptability needed to operate larger farms may further influence off-farm job 

prospects. Off-farm job prospects, in turn, can be important to farm operators and their spouses 

since nonfarm income can be a viable risk-adaptation strategy for farm households heavily 

invested in agricultural production.
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References

Autor, D. H., L. F. Katz, and M. S. Kearney. 2008. “Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the 

Revisionists.” Review of Economics and Statistics 90(2): 300-23.

El-Osta, H.S. 2011. “The Impact of Human Capital on Farm Operator Household Income.” 

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 40(1): 95-115.

El-Osta, H.S., A.K. Mishra, and M.J. Morehart. 2008. “Off-Farm Labor Participation Decisions 

of Married Farm Couples and the Role of Government Payments.” Review of Agricultural 

Economics 30(2): 311-332.

Feser, E. 2003. “What Regions Do Rather Than Make: A Proposed Set of Knowledge-Based 

Occupation Clusters.” Urban Studies 40(10): 1937-1958.

Hoppe, R.A., and J.M MacDonald. April 2013. Updating the ERS Farm Typology. EIB-110. U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 

Huffman, W.E. 1980. “Farm and Off-Farm Work Decisions: The Role of Human Capital.” The 

Review of Economics and Statistics 62: 14-23.

Huffman, W.E., and M.D. Lange. 1989. “Off-Farm Work Decisions of Husbands and Wives: Joint 

Decision Making.” Review of Economics and Statistics 71: 471–80.

Koo, J. 2005. “How to Analyze the Regional Economy with Occupation Data.” Economic 

Development Quarterly 19: 356-372.

Mishra, A.K., and H-H. Chang. 2012. “Can Off Farm Employment Affect the Privatization of Social 

Safety Net? The Case of Self-Employed Farm Households.” Food Policy 37(1): 94-101.

Mishra, A.K., H.S. El-Osta, and M.C. Ahearn. 2012. “Health Care Expenditures of Self-Employed 

Farm Households in the United States.” Agricultural Economics 43(1): 75-88.

Rahm, M.R., and W. E. Huffman. 1984. “The Adoption of Reduced Tillage: The Role of Human 

Capital and Other Variables.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 66(4): 405-13.

Schultz, T.W. 1964. Transforming Traditional Agriculture. Yale University Press: New Haven, Conn. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 2012a. Farm Household Economics 

and Well-Being: Farm Household Income. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/WellBeing/farmhouseincome.htm. Accessed 3/16/12.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 2012b. Farm Household Economics 

and Well-Being: Labor Allocations & Age. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farmhousehold-well-being/labor-allocations-age.aspx. Accessed 3/16/12.
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U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 2012c. Farm Household Economics 

and Well-Being: Glossary. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-wellbeing/glossary.aspx#familyfarm. Accessed 3/16/12.

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http://www.bls.gov/oes/. Accessed 1/13/12.
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Appendix: Industry and Occupation Questions 

From the Agricultural Resource Management Survey

Respondents answered the following sequence of questions in the 2010 ARMS: 

(i) Which business code represents the type of off-farm business you and/or your spouse worked at?

1 = Agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, or mining

2 = Construction

3 = Manufacturing

4 = Education services

5 = Healthcare services

6 = Other government services

7 = Wholesale trade, warehousing, utilities or transportation

8 = Finance, insurance, real estate, information, or other professional services

9 = Recreation or tourism, including eating and lodging

10 = Retail trade or personal services

11 = Other nongovernmental services

(ii) Which occupational code represents the type of job you and/or your spouse had at this off-farm 

business?

1 = Management and professional

2 = Services

3 = Sales and office support

4 = Natural resources, construction, and maintenance

5 = Production, transportation and materials moving

6 = Military

The distinction between industry and occupation is that workers can conceivably be in one of the 

occupations listed within most industry types. Examples of occupation types by each category are 

provided below.8,9

Management, professional, and related occupations include the following occupational categories: 

(i) management, (ii) business and financial, (iii) computer and mathematical, (iv) architecture and 

engineering, (v) life, physical, and social sciences, (vi) community and social services, (vii) legal, 

8The occupation categories conform to the revised Standard Occupation Code (SOC) announced in SOC Federal Register 

Notice September 30, 1999, published by the Office of Management and Budget (http://www.bls.gov/soc/soc_sept.htm).

9All Federal agencies collecting occupational data are required to use these categories for the highest aggregation 

level (6 categories) of occupational data. The 2010 Standard Occupation Code revised some of the detailed occupations, 

but the aggregation schemes remain unchanged (e.g., http://www.bls.gov/soc/classification2010.htm). See also “Federal 

Register Notice, January 21, 2009” (http://www.bls.gov/soc/soc2010final.pdf).
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(viii) education, training, and library, (ix) arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media, and (x) 

healthcare practitioner and technician.

Services occupations include the following occupational categories: (i) healthcare support (such 

as nursing and all types of healthcare-related assistants and aides), (ii) protective service, (iii) food 

preparation and serving, (iv) building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, and (v) personal care 

and service.

Sales and office support occupations include the following occupational categories: (i) sales and 

related (such as retail and wholesale sales occupations, including first-line supervisors; real estate 

brokers and sales agents; advertising sales; insurance, securities, and commodity sales; and sales 

representatives of all types) and (ii) office and administrative support (such as office supervisors 

and administrative support staff, communication equipment operators, and clerks of all kinds – 

financial, information, service-processing, record-keeping, production, shipping and receiving, 

and postal and courier).

Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations include the following categories: 

(i) farming, fishing, and forestry occupations, (ii) construction trades, laborers, operators, and supervisors, (iii) mining extraction workers, and (iv) installation, maintenance, and repair occupations of 

all types.

Production, transportation, and materials-moving occupations include the following categories: (i) first-line supervisors and workers in production (such as assemblers; food processers; 

metal and plastic workers; machine tool-related workers; chemical, printing, textiles, and woodworkers; and all types of plant and system operators) and (ii) transportation – all land, air, and 

water transport of people and goods, and materials-moving occupations (such as refuse and recycling, dredging, and excavation).

Military occupations include the following categories: (i) military officer (special and tactical operations leaders), (ii) first-line enlisted military supervisors, and (iii) military enlisted tactical operations and air/weapons specialists and crew members. Information on military occupations was not 

covered in this report because of the small number of ARMS respondents reporting this occupation.