Farm employment numbers have fallen over the years and new research out of Oklahoma State University found they are roughly half of what they were more than 50 years ago.
Since 1969, the number of workers engaged in the direct production of ag commodities was around 4 million. That was about 4.5 percent of the U.S. population at the time.
In 2021, farm labor accounted for 2.6 million jobs or a little more than 2 percent of total U.S. employment. Researchers found the most significant declines happened in the Southeast and Midwest at 35 percent since 1969. That is followed up by the Plains region at just under a 20 percent fall.
