Farmers contend with a long list of potential crop hazards every growing season, from droughts and floods, to disease and pests. But multiple farmer surveys done at the many conferences and workshops held this summer and fall reveal that the top challenge on the mind of farmers is labor. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually, but the number of available workers continues to shrink each year.
One of the most widely used solutions to the domestic farm worker shortage is the United States’ H-2A visa program, which allows employers to bring foreign laborers in for temporary agricultural work. According to AFBF, 73% of farm workers in the U.S. are immigrants from South America and Mexico. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of certified H-2A workers—those who are requested by employers and then certified by the DOL—grew by +%, from 224,965 to 370,628.
There is also the H-2B visa program which is officially named the “Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers Program.” While the name implies that the agricultural sector is excluded, H-2B visa holders can perform work in a broad range of industries that are vital to agriculture, including those who are involved in the direct production of nursery, forestry and seafood products.
According to AFBF, nearly 60% of the H-2B positions certified in fiscal year 2023 were employed by segments of the agricultural supply chain, from processing to final retail. When including food service, agricultural supply chain positions take six of the top 10 H-2B occupations. These include:
Landscapers and Groundskeepers: The top two occupations in the H-2B program make up nearly 40% of all H-2B positions. These are closely integrated with the nursery and greenhouse industries. Some nurseries provide landscaping services directly, but even if they do not, landscapers and groundskeepers are significant consumers of horticulture products.
Forest and Conservation: These workers are the third-largest occupation of H-2B workers. These workers cultivate seedlings, plant seedlings, clear brush and manage vegetation for both public and private forests. According to AFBF, H-2B workers plant over 85% of trees planted in the U.S. each year. Workers also clear brush and thin tree canopies to prevent wildfires. The U.S. Forest Service utilizes H-2B contractors to combat its own government employment shortages.
Animal Processing: The fifth-largest H-2B program occupation helps to maintain U.S. meat, poultry, and fish processing capacity. AFBF notes that H-2B workers were a valuable asset during the Covid-19 pandemic when domestic labor shortages threatened the industry – 8,486 meat, poultry and fish cutters and trimmers positions were certified in fiscal year 2019, but that number jumped to 11,059 in fiscal year 2020 and 17,754 in fiscal year 2021 as the processing sector recovered from the interruptions.
One of the most critical differences between the H-2A and H-2B programs, according to AFBF, is the annual cap imposed on the latter. Only 66,000 H-2B petitions may be accepted in a fiscal year and those must be split between the first and last halves of the year, starting Oct. 1 and April 1, respectively.
The annual H-2B visa cap is typically met very early in the application cycle. For instance, as of Sept. 18, 2024, all visas have been allocated for the first half of fiscal year 2025. This means that employers needing late fall and winter help are capped out before their period of seasonal need begins.
Slow application processing speeds also hinder the use of H-2B workers. AFBF says that while more than 90% of H-2A applications are processed within 30 days, H-2B applications were only processed timely on average 66% of the time over the past seven years. This was true for only 46% of applications in fiscal 2023. Application approval time also varies drastically depending on the quarter of the year. The third quarter has the lowest timely approval rate – only 1% in fiscal year 2023 – which AFBF says is likely due to exceeded caps.
Congress has given the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the power to make additional H-2B visas to “the highest number of returning workers in any such fiscal year in which returning workers were exempt from such numerical exemptions.” As AFBF explains, 69,320 H-2B visas were issued to returning workers in 2007, so that is now the maximum additional visas the secretary may offer in fiscal year 2025.
However, there are often many restrictions on who can receive H-2B visas. In fiscal year 2024, 19,000 of the additional 64,716 visas made available were reserved for returning workers, and 20,000 visas were to be granted exclusively to citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Columbia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica, despite the majority of H-2B workers being from Mexico.
There is currently a bipartisan effort int he U.S. Senate urging the Secretary of Homeland Security to raise the H-2B cap for fiscal year 2025. The Senators point to the latest Department of Labor’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Surveys (JOLTS) that show the rate of job openings have increased year over year for the industries that represent the top five H-2B occupations. Their letter to DHS is HERE.
