Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research at NIOSH Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (2008) / Chapter Skim
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E: Methods for Identifying the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Population
E: Methods for Identifying the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Population
Pages 301-316
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From page 301... ...
2001-02. A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farm Workers, Research Report No.
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From page 302... ...
Initiated in 1910 and conducted with only a few interruptions nearly every year since then, the FLS is an employer survey that obtains reports of employment and other characteristics, such as wage rates paid and hours worked. A nationally representative sample of farm operators and agricultural service firms (mainly farm labor contractors)
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From page 303... ...
It is important that the FLS survey includes all types of employers of hired farm workers, such as crew leaders and labor contractors, who have been deliberately excluded from Economic Census coverage. The Census Bureau abandoned its Census of Agricultural Services, which had included farm labor contractors, after a failed effort in 1978.
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From page 304... ...
The FLS provides excellent information on a regional and large-state basis that can be combined with data from other sources, such as the Agricultural Census, to estimate the numbers of farm workers in smaller geographic areas, such as counties. The FLS also can be combined with DOL's National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS)
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From page 305... ...
As further described below, the Census data and surveys based on its sample frame are probably accurate with respect to self-employed workers in the AFF sector and for most regular or year-round workers in this sector. However, it is well established that the Census does not accurately enumerate a great many hired and contract farm laborers, as was officially delineated by its senior administrator in 1994. Scholarship has also demonstrated that deficiency (Gabbard et al., 1993)
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From page 306... ...
As a result of those considerations, government programs that serve hired farm laborers no longer rely on Census figures to estimate the size of this component of the AFF workforce. As a consequence, the use of Census data to measure the number of American hired farm laborers by government surveys, such as the CPS and the ACS, that rely on the Census sample frame have also become suspect with respect to their ability to enumerate hired farm laborers.
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From page 307... ...
However, because of the Census undercount, it is likely that the Occupational Census does not accurately reflect the full population of hired farm laborers.
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From page 308... ...
2,134,721 1,828,265 NOTE: Redefinition of some occupational categories in 2000 required combining some 1990 figures to correspond to the new definitions. Moreover, "Hired farm workers" were termed "Farm workers" in 1990 and "Miscellaneous agricultural workers, including animal breeders" in 2000.
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From page 309... ...
However, unlike the decennial Census, the CPS has no procedure for updating the MAF regarding informal dwelling locations that lack physical addresses. A cross-sectional statewide survey of hired farm laborers in California found that a substantial portion reside in informal dwellings that lack physical addresses (such as shacks, garages, and illegal trailers)
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From page 310... ...
The committee has identified other survey efforts that could be considered for specific, limited, single-purpose use when conducting surveillance of AFF sectors, including the Hired Farm Work Force report, the Current Employment Statistics, and the Census of Employment and Wages. The 5-year Census of Agriculture is considered separately below.
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From page 311... ...
ACS uses the Census sample frame. Like those of the CPS, its sampling methods and survey methods lead to underreporting of hired farm laborers.
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. NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKERS SURVEY The NAWS is a national cross-sectional survey of hired crop-farm workers; livestock workers are excluded.
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From page 313... ...
When combined with data from other sources, such as the Census of Agriculture or the FLS, the NAWS has been effectively used to provide otherwise hardto-estimate numbers, such as estimates of the number of persons who qualify for participation in federal programs intended to serve migrant farm laborers. In addition, the NAWS conforms its sampling procedure to the same 18 USDA crop regions as form the basis of the FLS (and in fact uses FLS data to assist in determining the proportion of interviews required in each crop region)
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From page 314... ...
The interviews included inquiries specifically designed to probe the occupational safety and health status of hired farm laborers, and some of the queries were permanently added to the NAWS after the end of NIOSH supplementary support. A NIOSH report on the findings of the occupational health supplement, by Andrea Steege and Sherry Baron, has been completed and has undergone extensive outside review.
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From page 315... ...
and numerous other details are regularly produced to enable insurance providers to base premium rates on claim frequency and experience. Paid workers' compensation claims have been reviewed and analyzed to obtain reasonably accurate estimates of employment and estimates of the cumulative prevalence of injury and illness in hired farm laborers in California and other states (Villarejo, 1997)
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From page 316... ...
From there, it makes sense to consider surveillance of all five categories of workers -- self-employed workers, unpaid family workers, directly hired laborers, contract laborers, other employees of large-scale firms -- in each of the three AFF subsectors. Datasets on workers' compensation are reasonably reliable for surveillance of fatalities and serious injuries or illnesses among hired workers but less reliable for minor cases.
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