There were 807,000 hired workers on the nation's farms and
ranches during the week of Jan. 9-15, 2011, up 1 percent from a
year ago. Of these hired workers, 602,000 were hired directly by
farm operators. Agricultural service employees on farms and
ranches made up the remaining 205,000 workers.  Farm operators
paid their hired workers an average wage of $11.29 per hour
during the January 2011 reference week, up 21 cents from a year
earlier. Field workers received an average of $10.23 per hour,
up 13 cents from last January, while livestock workers earned
$10.52 per hour compared with $10.31 a year earlier. The field
and livestock worker combined wage rate, at $10.35 per hour, was
up 17 cents from last year. The number of hours worked averaged
38.9 for hired workers during the survey week, up 5 percent from
a year ago.  The largest increases in the number of hired
workers from last year occurred in the Northern Plains (Kansas,
Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota), Northeast I (New
England and New York), an