Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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9.1 Agricultural Employment
Nationally, farm workers account for less than one percent of all U.S wage and salary
workers. The majority of farm work, 70 percent, is performed by paid or unpaid family
members, while only 30 percent is performed by hired farm workers. 697 Agriculture used
to account for roughly seven to eight percent of the workforce in Colorado 698 and now
represents only about two to three percent of the State’s workforce. 699 As advances in
technology have continued to increase the efficiency of agricultural production, there has
been a steady decrease in farm employment, as shown in Graph 24. At present, the
agricultural sector provides about 100,000 jobs in Colorado, employing three percent of
the workforce, less than the national average of four percent in 2009. 700
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Graph 24: Farm Employment (Full and Part-time),
U.S. and Rockies Region, 1969 - 2000 701
Labor Supply and Status
In recent years, Colorado farmers have reported a shortage of labor. Labor shortages
can have profound economic impacts on more specialized operations, where labor can
account for 30-40 percent of operation expenses. 702, 703 In 2006, labor shortages resulted
in an estimated loss of $60 million. 704 Analyses of the regional economic impact of a
migrant workforce have been conflicting. Some analysts argue that elimination of
undocumented workers will have adverse long-term consequences due to a loss of labor
and economic output. 705 Others have argued that migrant workers (whether legal or not)
carry a lower buying power due to their temporary status in a community and the fact
that many send some portion of their earnings to family members in their home
countries. For example, of the $48,561,662 earned by Hispanic workers in Weld
County’s meat packing industry, five percent went towards property and income taxes
and 3.5 percent went to remittances to home countries, leaving an approximate $44.5
million (91.5 percent) for savings and disposable income. While some of this income will
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