In October 2025, the US Department of Labor made three major changes to H-2A regulations to reduce the cost of H-2A workers. DOL: changed the database used to set hourly Adverse Effect Wage Rates ...

Meatpacking plants have long relied on immigrant workers to staff dis-assembly lines that extract cuts of meat from carcasses. The Big Four meatpackers, JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and National Beef, ...

UC Davis hosted a farm labor conference May 21-23, 2025 conference that examined current farm labor issues, continuities and changes in California farm labor over the half century since the enactment ...

During the 1930s, some 1.3 million Americans from the Midwest and southwest migrated to California, which had a population of 5.7 million in 1930s. The arrival of Okies and Arkies set the stage for ...

US agriculture is a 50/50 industry, meaning that half of farm sales are from crops and half are the sale of animal products. California agriculture is a 70/30 state, meaning that 70 percent of farm ...

The H-2A program allows US employers who anticipate shortages of seasonal farm workers to be certified by DOL to recruit and employ H-2A workers to fill seasonal farm jobs for up to 10 months. DOL ...

Economic development often decreases the supply of seasonal farm workers faster than the demand for such workers, leading to complaints of farm labor shortages. Most countries richer than their ...

GAO . The GAO released a report (25-106389) in November 2024 that called for more oversight of the H-2A program and enforcement of H-2A regulations. The number of H-2A jobs quadrupled between FY13 and ...

The US has 50 million or almost 20 percent of the world’s 280 million international migrants, far more than Germany (16 million), Saudi Arabia (13 million), and Russia (12 million). The US admits over ...

Farm labor contractors (FLCs) are labor market intermediaries who recruit, supervise, and pay farm workers. DOL’s Wage and Hour Division defines a FLC as “a person or business who recruits, solicits, ...

There have been many efforts to uncover the secrets to rapid economic growth. Most explanations for persisting poverty center on three factors: Geography stresses that most poor countries are in the ...

The H-2A program allows US farm employers who anticipate shortages of seasonal workers to request that DOL certify their need for H-2A guest workers to fill seasonal farm jobs. DOL certifies farm ...