The Hired Farm Working Force of 1975

About 2.6 million persons 14 years of age and over did farmwork for wages or salary at some time during 1975. This total has changed little during the past 5 years, after the long-term downward trend of prior years. Generally, hired farmworkers were young (median age 23 years), male (77 percent), and resided in nonfarm places (79 percent). Their annual earnings in 1975 averaged $2,552. Of this, $1,488 was earned for 85 days of hired farmwork. The remainder came from nonfarm employment. About 72 percent were white, 11 percent were of Spanish origin, and 17 percent were blacks and others. Approximately 1.5 million persons worked only as farmworkers during 1975; the remaining 1.1 million did both farm and nonfarm work. Over 1 million persons doing hired farmwork were in school much of the year. About 188,000 (7 percent) of the total were migrant farmworkers in 1975. Annual earnings from farm employment for these workers averaged $2,003, or $21.05 per day for 95 days of farmwork. Sixty-one percent of all migrants had only farm jobs during the year