H-2A program sees double-digit gains in positions filled

American growers need more workers, and the H-2A program is answering the bell.

U.S. Department of Labor data show that,  for the first two quarters of fiscal year 2022, program applications increased 17.5% over the previous fiscal year.

 The total number of jobs certified by DOL’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification for the same period jumped 16.5% to 193,273 compared with the previous year,  according to a news release said.

“Similar to other sectors of the U.S. economy, agricultural employers face an exceptional shortage of workers as America recovers from the pandemic,” Michael Marsh, president and CEO of NCAE,  said in the release. “Farm and ranch families need help filling these good-paying temporary jobs that, on average, pay more than twice the federal minimum wage.  Although employers advertise and recruit heavily to attract U.S. workers into these positions, the dwindling number of domestic applicants for these temporary positions has led to explosive growth in the number of temporary foreign workers needed to plant, nurture, and harvest food for our nation.”

Last fiscal year, the release said more than 258,000 temporary foreign workers received H-2A visas to fill the more than 317,000 farm and ranch jobs for which no qualified, willing, and available domestic workers could be recruited.  That was an increase of approximately 21% in the number of temporary foreign workers employed in the prior fiscal year in 2020, the release said.

“Despite the significant added costs and regulations ag employers must face if they participate in the program, farm and ranch employers find themselves increasingly having to turn to filling some of the 2.4 million hired U.S. agricultural jobs reported by the USDA with temporary workers coming from outside our borders,” Marsh said in the release. “This is a national security issue because a nation unable to feed and clothe itself is not secure.”