Agricultural jobs unchanged, wages up in 2006 - August 6, 2007

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Media contacts: Evelina Tainer, 360-438-4812
Sheryl Hutchison, 360-902-9289

OLYMPIA – Although some of Washington’s agricultural growers weren’t able to hire enough workers last year, agricultural employment across Washington remained essentially the same as in 2005, according to a new report by the Employment Security Department.

The 2006 Agricultural Workforce in Washington State report shows that the state’s annual average agricultural employment was flat last year, edging up from 93,186 workers in 2005 to 93,582 in 2006. But how those workers were distributed across the harvest season and various crops varied considerably in some cases.  

For example, early varieties of cherries ripened later than usual, while other varieties arrived about on time, resulting in a shorter, more-intensive harvest period. In addition, from 2005 to 2006, the amount of acreage planted in sweet cherries increased by 3.4 percent and the amount of sweet cherries harvested increased by 14.7 percent, from 102,695 tons to 117,778 tons.

These forces sharply increased the demand for cherry pickers during the condensed harvest period, and the number of seasonal workers employed in last year’s cherry harvest grew by nearly 58 percent, from about 3,200 workers in 2005 to 5,092 workers in 2006.  

By contrast, the amount of apples harvested in 2006 was about the same as 2005, dropping slightly from 5.8 billion pounds in 2005 to 5.7 billion pounds the next year. In both years, apple growers hired about 15,000 seasonal workers to help with the harvest. 

Across all crops, annual seasonal agricultural employment increased from 29,842 in 2005 to 32,015 workers in 2006, with cherries representing 86 percent of that growth. 

“The employment reports we received from growers show that the number of agricultural workers they hired last year didn’t decline.  But there isn’t a box they can check to tell us if they would have hired more people if they could,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.  

From economists’ perspective, one indication of a worker shortage is higher wages.  In that respect, the quarterly wage reports from Washington employers in 2006 show that hourly wages for cherries rose by 22.6 percent to $14.32.  Wages for apples, Washington’s dominant agricultural crop, rose by 10.8 percent to $11.42 per hour.  Over all, Washington’s average hourly wage for agricultural jobs increased by 4.2 percent, to $11.36 in 2006.

“The sharper wage hikes in cherries and apples indicate that there was competition for workers last year,” said Lee.  

Lee noted that Washington’s booming economy contributed to the competition for workers. 

“Farmers had to compete not only with each other, but also against other industries that might offer better wages or more-stable employment,” Lee said. 

Twenty-six percent of the agricultural jobs in 2006 were concentrated in south-central Washington, which includes Yakima and Klickitat counties.  The north-central region, which includes Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas and Okanogan counties, shared another 21 percent of the state’s agricultural employment.

According to surveys taken by the Employment Security Department, growers in the Central Washington corridor had the hardest time hiring enough workers. More than 20 percent of them reported labor difficulties in July, and 13 percent reported labor shortages in August, September and October. 

The 2006 Agricultural Workforce in Washington State report also confirmed information previously released by the state Department of Agriculture about the economic value of the agricultural industry in Washington. 

In 2005, agriculture became a $6 billion industry in Washington, reaching a total value of more than $6.4 billion. This represented an 8.9 percent increase from 2004 to 2005.  If government subsidies are counted, the 2005 production value totaled more than $6.6 billion.

The 2006 Agricultural Workforce in Washington State report is available online at http://www.workforceexplorer.com, under “What’s new.”