Methods for Identifying the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Population - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 297

THE HIRED FARM WORK FORCE
The USDA ERS summary, The Hired Farm Work Force , sought to provide pe-
riodic reports on the demographic and economic status of the nation's hired farm
laborers, but was discontinued after 1987 and replaced by the NAWS. The 2000
ERS report, Proile of Hired Farmworkers, 998 Annual Averages , has indicated that
those analyses have important limitations, associated mainly with the difficulty of
enumerating Hispanic farm laborers (Runyan, 2000). The data for these reports
were derived from the CPS and regarded by scholars with the same degree of skep-
ticism as the CPS (Larson, 2002).
AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY
The ACS is the most recent initiative of the Census Bureau. It is a monthly
survey of 100,000 randomly selected households designed to replace the “long
form” of the Census. A major portion of the sample is rotated each month, and this
enhances the statistical power of the findings by accumulating data for a sequence
of several months.
ACS uses the Census sample frame. Like those of the CPS, its sampling methods
and survey methods lead to underreporting of hired farm laborers. However, the
cumulative sample over many months yields findings that are more statistically
stable than some findings of the CPS.
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS
The CES is a monthly survey of 160,000 businesses and government agencies,
representing 400,000 worksites and seeks payroll and employment information
for the week that includes the 12th day of the month. It is sometimes referred to
as the payroll report of employment. All agricultural workers and self-employed
workers are excluded. Therefore, the CES is not helpful for the purposes of the
NIOSH AFF program.
CENSUS OF EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES
The BLS also compiles the CEW, which is based on the quarterly reports of
monthly employment and quarterly total wages required of employers subject to
unemployment insurance requirements. As in the case of other BLS employment
data, monthly employment refers only to persons on the payroll during the pay
period that includes the 12th day of the month.