Nursery Worker Turnover and Language Proficiency

Abstract

<jats:p>The U.S. nursery and landscape industry generates 1.9 million jobs and had an annual payroll of greater than $3 billion in 2002, yet little is known about nursery and landscape workers. This lack of information is even more pressing considering that labor generally accounts for greater than 40% of production costs and 31% of gross sales. Labor shortages, immigration reform, and legal status of employees are widely reported as the industry's most critical issues. We hypothesized that relevant data regarding the nursery industry workforce may raise an appreciation of the industry's diversity, increase political power and public awareness, and help stakeholders evaluate policy decisions and plan corrective strategies in a more informed manner. A total of 4466 self-administered questionnaires were sent in 2006, attempting to reach 30 nurseries in each of nine states with 1561 returned (35% response rate). Hispanics constituted 70% of the average nursery workforce, including general laborers (76%), crew leaders (61%), and sales/managers (others) (21%). Across firms, labor retention was less than 51% after 5 years and only 22% of employees understood English, raising questions regarding availability and access to training. Sixty percent of nursery employees had not received work-related training, although 81% of men and 72% of women were interested, and an association between training and employee retention existed. The highest rated training topic of interest was English/Spanish (respective of Spanish/English primary language respondents). There was a positive correlation between developing fluency and worker turnover, making the laborer attrition rate even more unfavorable for employers who not only lost employees with acquired experience, but also with acquired English skills.</jats:p>

Economic Impacts of Mechanization or Automation on Horticulture Production Firms Sales, Employment, and Workers’ Earnings, Safety, and Retention

“…The nursery and greenhouse industry is often described as one of the fastest-growing sectors of U.S. agriculture and is inherently labor intensive (Regelbrugge, 2007) with greater than 40% of production costs consisting of labor costs (Mathers et al, 2010). Hodges et al (2011) estimated the total economic impact of the U.S. green industry at $175.26 billion representing %0.76% of the national gross domestic product in 2007.…”

“…Many commercial operations have employed immigrant labor, which is mostly less skilled, to meet their rising labor requirements. The nursery migrant workforce are employed, on average 6 months, and most stayed for 10 months (Mathers et al, 2010). In the long run, there is a need to increase the skill level of these migrant workers to improve wage rates, recruitment, and retention of workers.…”

Implementation of Sensor-based Automated Irrigation in Commercial Floriculture Production: A Case Study

“…In addition to future water availability concerns, labor costs and employee management, retention, and training are persistent challenges for commercial horticulture producers. Mathers et al (2010) noted that labor accounts for 40% of nursery production costs, whereas labor retention rates were 51% after 5 years. The horticulture industry is facing critical shortfalls in labor pools with tightening regulations regarding migrant workers and an increasingly competitive domestic labor market (Bellenger et al, 2008).…”

Hiring Preferences of Nurseries and Greenhouses in U.S. Southern States

“…H ired farmworkers make up a third of the total agricultural labor force and are critical to U.S. agricultural production, particularly for labor-intensive sectors such as fruit and vegetable farms (Kandel, 2008). Regelbrugge (2007) described the nursery and greenhouse industry as one of the fastest-growing sectors of U.S. agriculture, and is inherently labor intensive with 40% of production costs consisting of labor costs (Kandel, 2008;Mathers et al, 2010). The most recent estimates by Hodges et al (2011) showed that the total economic impact of the U.S. green industry reached $175.26 billion representing 0.76% of the national gross domestic product in 2007.…”

“…Many commercial operations have employed immigrant labor, which is mostly less skilled, to meet their rising labor requirements. The nursery migrant workforce are employed, on average 6 months, and most stayed for 10 months (Mathers et al, 2010).…”