Hired workers on California farms

Abstract

A vast and complex farm labor mobilization takes place every year in California. The most common statistic used to describe this annual mobilization is the estimate of employment of workers on California farms. Such figures do vrovide us with essential infarms mobilize workers formation, but a more complete picture ~emerges if we also examine estimates of the hired farm labor force-estimates that are to fill half a million seasonal jobs. only intermittently available. In discussing hired labor on California farms we have to distinguish three concepts: (1) the hired work force, (2) employment, and (3) work done. The hired work force includes all individuals who do farm work for wages in the course of the year. Employment refers to the average number of individuals actually working at a particular time-for example, the week containing the twelfth day of the month. Employment may also refer to