Rural population loss highlights farmworker shortage, prompts farming lobbies to renew call for immigration reform

"Rural America lost more population in the latest census, highlighting an already severe worker shortage in the nation's farming and ranching regions and drawing calls from those industries for immigration reform to help ease the problem," Gant Schulte and David Pitt report for The Associated Press. "The census data released last week showed that population gains in many rural areas were driven by increases in Hispanic and Latino residents, many of whom come as immigrants to work on farms or in meatpacking plants or to start their own businesses."

In Nebraska, only 24 of the state's 93 counties grew in population over the past decade; increases in white residents drove growth in only eight of those counties, says David Drozd of the University of Nebraska-Omaha's Center for Public Affairs Research. The Nebraska counties with meatpacking plants had the greatest racial diversity in the state, he found. "In the rural areas, if you didn't have the Latino growth, employers would be struggling even more just to fill those positions," Drozd told AP.

New Mexico farmers need about 3,000 seasonal workers for the annual chile harvest, but only have about 1,350 lined up. Earlier this week, the state promised up to $5 million in federal relief funds to boost laborers' hourly pay as high as $19.50. "Republican state legislators blamed the labor scarcity on supplemental unemployment benefits, which they say create a disincentive to work because they pay more than some low-wage jobs. Democrats see a persistent labor crisis," AP reports.

North Carolina poultry processing plants are facing a worker shortage too. It will probably get worse as rural areas keep losing population and migrant workers increasingly turn to industries such as construction, predicted North Carolina Poultry Federation executive director Bob Ford. Higher pay and benefits could help, but broad immigration-policy change is the best solution, he told AP. "The National Pork Producers Council is pushing federal lawmakers to change the H-2A visa program so that migrant workers can remain employed longer," Schulte and Pitt report.