Despite high unemployment, Americans don’t want farm jobs

Though nearly one out of every 11 people across the country is out of work, on industry is facing a labor shortage. Some farmers in the western U.S. who have traditionally relied on migrant workers are now offering the same jobs to Americans – $10 an hour for pulling in the fall harvest. John Harold  is one of those farmers. Instead of hiring migrant workers this year, he left openings for local, jobless Americans, something he considers a mistake. Americans, he says, proved to be  less reliable and less willing to perform the hard work necessary to run his corn and onion farm than foreign workers. Kirk Johnson, who profiled Harold’s farm for The New York Times, talks about this trend nationally.