It’s well known that American agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers can fill seasonal farm jobs with temporary foreign workers through the H-2A Visa Program.
The Department of Labor officially certified approximately 317,000 temporary jobs in fiscal year 2021 under the H-2A program.
That number was more than six times the number of jobs certified in 2005.
Only about 80% of the certified jobs in 2021 resulted in the issuance of a visa.
The program has grown partly in response to current U.S. domestic workers finding jobs outside of American agriculture and a drop in newly arrived immigrants looking for farm jobs in the U.S.
Six states accounted for about half of the H-2A jobs that were filled in 2021, including Florida, Georgia, Washington, California, North Carolina, and Louisiana.
Nationally, the average H-2A contract offered 24 weeks of employment and 39.3 hours per week at $13 per hour.
