Farm worker rolls down 7 pct, wages up - USDA

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. farms and ranches pared hired workers by 7 percent to 919,000 in April from the same month a year ago, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday.

USDA said 700,000 workers were hired directly by farm operators. The remaining 219,000 workers were agricultural service employees on farms and ranches. The survey was conducted the week of April 6-12.

Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage of $10.60 per hour during the April reference week, up 40 cents from a year earlier. Field workers received an average of $9.65 per hour, up 30 cents from last April, while livestock workers earned $10.32 per hour compared with $9.59 a year earlier.

The number of hours worked averaged 41.0 hours for hired workers during the survey week, an increase of 1 percent from a year ago.

Below is a summary from USDA's farm labor report:

"The largest decreases in the number of hired workers from last year occurred in California and in the Delta (Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi), Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina), Mountain I (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), and Southern Plains (Oklahoma and Texas) regions.

In California, planted acreage of cotton, dry beans, and sugar beets declined sharply from 2007. Therefore, the demand for field workers was considerably lower.

Excessive rain and flooding in the Delta region curtailed most field activities and lessened the need for field workers.

In the Southeast region, wet conditions and low soil temperatures delayed corn and cotton planting in Alabama and Georgia, reducing the demand for field workers.