Posted: 05.21.2010

This week's jobless claims number was higher then some analysts believe - and it comes at time when more and more workers are need on farms in the Midwest.

Thursday the National Ag Statistics bureau said that more then 62,000 workers were hired specifically to work on farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan in the month of April. However, the average wage was down about 37 cents an hour compared to a year ago.

The dry, warm weather helped escalate the number of workers needed this year compared to 2009 - which was wet and muddy .

Nationwide, NASS estimated that about 997,000 workers were hired to work on farms up 10 percent from 2009.  737,000 of those workers were hired directly by farm operators.  Ag service employees on farms made up the other 260,000.

What about wages?  Nationwide the average wage was around $10.83 an hour, down about a penny from last year.  In Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan the average was came in around $11.18 an hour.

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