The Hired Farm Working Force of 1977

About 2.7 million persons 14 years of age and over worked on farms for wages and salaries at some time during 1977. The workers were predominately young (56 percent under 25 years) and male (77 percent). The majority (72 percent) were Whites, 11 percent were Hispanics, and 17 percent were Blacks and Others. The median education of the workers 25 years and older was 10.1 years. Annual earnings in 1977 of all hired farmworkers averaged $3,265; $1,913 were earned for an average 93 days of hired farmwork; the remainder came from nonfarm employment. Approximately 191,000 persons (7 percent of the work force) were migrants in 1977