News

Sharp drop in hired farm workers in Iowa and Missouri

A USDA-NASS report on farm labor in Iowa and Missouri, the Cornbelt II region, shows the number of hired workers on farms and ranches in April of this year was down 18 percent from April 2016.

The number of farm workers in the two states dropped from 22,000 to 18,000.

The report says farm operators in the Iowa and Missouri paid their hired workers an average wage of just over $13.41 dollars per hour this year, up 24 cents from a year earlier.

Nationwide, the number of farm workers was down four percent year-to-year in April. The nationwide average farm worker wage was $13.23 per hour during the April 2017 reference week, up 4 percent from April 2016, according to the NASS report.

Link to NASS report