U.S. Poultry Processing Employment and Hourly Earnings

Abstract

Various governmental information sources show sizeable differences in total employment in the poultry processing industry. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment estimates for some years are more than 20% larger than corresponding values reported by the Census of Manufacturers/Annual Survey of Manufacturers or County Business Patterns. The publicly available sources of information give more consistent reports on average hourly earning of production workers in the poultry processing industry than on total employment in the industry. Although nominal hourly earnings have increased over time, deflating these figures with different measures of relative price changes can result in varying trends in real hourly earnings. Deflating earnings by the Consumer Price Index produces a negative trend in hourly earnings between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Deflating by the price index for nondurable component of personal expenditure component of GNP, however, result in a generally upward, but not continuous, trend in real hourly earnings after 1974. Such variations among sources of information and methods of analysis account for confusion and differences of opinion about total employment and hourly earnings in the poultry processing industry.