This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
A listener in China asks about the earnings of farmers in the United States.
Kevin Wan from Sichuan would also like to know how pay for farmers compares with
that of industrial workers.
The farm economy of the United States has changed a lot in the last seventy
years. In the 1930s, 25 percent of the nation's population lived on farms.
Today less than one percent of Americans do.
Farm incomes have changed over the years too. For example, in 1933, people
living and working on farms had much less money to spend than other Americans.
At that time, farm families had about one-third the income of non-farmers after
all necessary expenses had been paid. By the late 1970s, however, that
difference had almost disappeared.
In 2004, farmers had their best year ever. The United States Department of
Agriculture says the average farm family earned about 81 thousand dollars.
That is more than the average American family, which earned about sixty thousand
dollars.
Yet these numbers do not completely explain the situation for all farmers.
Those who have small farms often take other jobs to earn extra income. And farm
earnings for large farms grew faster than for small ones.
The Department of Labor measures the pay of industrial workers differently.
It measures the average hourly and weekly pay for industrial workers. This is
because factory workers are generally paid by the hour unlike farmers who earn
income from their farm businesses.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average hourly pay for all private
industrial workers is about sixteen dollars.
The B.L.S. says average weekly pay for all industrial workers is about five
hundred fifty dollars. But that is an average. Workers can earn as much as twice
the average or as little as half of it depending on the industry in which they
work.
Industrial workers are about twenty-three percent of the labor force. But
that number has been decreasing. Most Americans have jobs that provide services.
Professional, technical and other services employ about seventy-six percent of
the labor force.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our
reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep
O'Neal.
