Methods for Identifying the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Population - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 292

The Census relies primarily on a mail-return short form requested of all Ameri-
can households and a long form from a random sample of about one-sixth of them.
For literate English-speakers who reside in a dwelling with a physical address, the
response rate is quite high. In contrast, for non-literate, low-income, non-English
speaking immigrants, who may be undocumented or reside in informal dwellings
that lack physical addresses, the response rate is low. The Census undercount is a
continuing problem to which considerable effort and resources have been allocated
in an effort to account for those missed by the mail-return forms.
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.
In the decennial Census, employment status information is collected for the
workweek before the reference date of April 1. The information is reported on
the “long form”, gathered from a roughly one-sixth sample of all households, or
about 18 million of the 105 million households. The specific question determining
employment status in the 2000 Census read as follows:
LAST WEEK, did this person do ANY work for either pay or profit? Mark
the “Yes” box even if the person worked only 1 hour, or helped without
pay in a family business or farm for 15 hours or more, or was on active
duty in the Armed Forces. 4
Note the careful wording regarding possible unpaid work on a family farm. Inclu-
sion of that phrase makes it possible for the Census to seek to enumerate unpaid
family workers in the AFF sector.
However, the inquiry regarding industry of employment refers to either the
current job or, if there is no current employment, the most recent job held, even if
it was as far back as 1996. The question regarding industry status read as follows:
Describe clearly this person's chief job activity or business last week. If this
person had more than one job, describe the one at which this person had
the most hours. If this person had no job or business last week, give the
information for his/her last job or business since 1995. 5
Similarly, the inquiry regarding occupation status refers to the respondent's industry
status, clearly, albeit implicitly, referring to the most recent job since 1995.
4 United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census, United States Census 000 , Form
D-2, Question 21, p. 6.
5 Ibid. Question 27, p. 7.