The Agricultural Work Force of 1987: A Statistical Profile

About 7.7 million people aged 14 and older were employed on U.S. farms at some time during 1987. Almost 2.5 million persons were hired farmworkers, 2.8 million operated farms, and about 3.6 million were unpaid farmworkers. Over 1 million, or 13 percent of the agricultural work force, engaged in more than one of these agricultural occupations during the year. Almost half of all operators and hired farmworkers did nonfarmwork at some point during 1987. Almost 70 percent of all unpaid workers did nonfarmwork during the year. Of the 5.4 million households containing an individual who did agricultural work during 1987, about 4.3 million were headed by a farmworker