Methods for Identifying the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Population - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 296

the CPS accurately reports the employment status of other segments of the AFF
workforce, especially self-employed workers and unpaid family workers. Thus, with
the caveat that directly hired and contract workers are not properly enumerated
in the CPS, the other segments of the AFF workforce are likely to be accurately
determined.
In comparing the findings of the CPS with those of the FLS, it has been demon-
strated that the FLS systematically reported hired farmworker employment about
30 percent higher than the CPS during the period 1984-1997 (Mines, 1998). The
employer reports in the FLS are probably more accurate with respect to this seg-
ment of the AFF workforce than the partial sample obtained by the CPS.
A recent report by the Congressional Research Service provides updated infor-
mation for the period after 1997 and confirms the earlier findings (Levine, 2007).
As indicated in Table E-4, the FLS reports from employers regarding their hired
farm workers are 29-55 percent larger than the findings from the CPS, as analyzed
by the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). Note that the ERS analysis includes
hired farm workers at least 15 years old whereas findings published by the CPS are
for workers at least 16 years old.
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.

TABLE E-4 Hired Farmworker Employment, 1998-2006, Annual Average
Economic Research Service (ERS) Analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS)
(at least 15 years old) versus Farm Labor Survey (all ages)
Year Hired Farm Workers, ERS (CPS) Hired Farm Workers, QALS

1998 875 1,126

1999 840 1,162

2000 878 1,133

2001 745 1,125

2002 793 1,111

2003 777 1,072

2004 712 1,102

2005 730 1,062

2006 748 1,007

SOURCE: Levine, 2007, Table 1, p. CRS-10.