Effects of the War on the Agricultural Working Force and on the Rural-Farm Population

Abstract

A T THE time of the last Census, the ruralfarm population 14 years of age and over included 10 million employed persons, 1 million unemployed, and about 10.4 million persons who were not in the labor force inasmuch as they were neither at work nor seeking work. Of the 10 million employed persons about 8 million were workers on farms and approximately 2 million in nonfarm occupations. By April of this year the picture has changed drastically. Employment has increased by 1.2 million, unemployment has virtually disappeared, while the rural-farm population 14 years of age and over outside of the labor force has decreased by 2.5 million as a result of migration, both civilian and military, and entrance into the labor force of many people who normally are not in the labor market. These broad shifts have resulted in divergent trends as between the employment of rural-farm persons in agriculture and in nonagricultural occupations. It is estimated that nearly 600,000 fewer rural-farm persons were employed on farms in April 1943 than in April 1940, while 1.8 million more were employed in nonfarm work. The changes indicated by these total employment figures hide even more marked shifts in the sex composition of the rural-farm labor force. Male farm workers decreased from 7.4 million to 6.3 million in this 3-year period, while female farm workers increased from .5 million to .9 million, partially replacing the men who left for industry and the armed forces. Many other women and men shifted into nonagricultural occupations without moving away from farms. These changes in the rural-farm labor force have profoundly affected the manpower resources available for meeting farm production goals in 1943.