Average annual farm employment dropped from 9.9 million in 1950 to 2.9 million in 1997. This decrease resulted largely from the trend toward fewer and larger farms, increased farm mechanization and other technological innovations, and higher off-farm wages. However, farm employment appears to have stabilized in recent years as increases in mechanization and labor-saving technology have leveled off and the downward trend in farm numbers has slowed. Family workers, including farm operators and unpaid workers, accounted for 69 percent of farm labor in 1997, while hired farmworkers accounted for 31 percent. Service workers, including crew leaders and custom crews, accounted for 9 percent of all workers on farms in 1997.
Labor comprises a significant portion of total farm production expenses.
About 36 percent of all farms had hired labor expenses and 12 percent had contract labor expenses. The importance of labor varied significantly by farm type and size of farm. These types of farms are the least mechanized, and many of the commodities they produce are still harvested by hand. At the other extreme, labor expenses comprised less than 5 percent of all production expenses on beef cattle, hog, sheep, poultry, and cash grain farms. Larger farms are more likely to have labor needs in excess of that provided by the family farm.