FLORIDA'S NURSERY INDUSTRY:
 LABOR USE AND IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION REFORM1

 John J. Haydu and Alan W. Hodges2

 Introduction

 The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of the 1986 Immigration
Reform and Control Act (IRCA) on the supply and availability of labor for Florida's
ornamental nursery industry. Like many horticultural commodity sectors, the nursery
industry relies heavily on hand labor to perform numerous tasks in the production,
care, assembly, and distribution of its products. However, a continuing problem
facing researchers who examine the nursery industry is the lack of consistent and
reliable time series data describing key aspects of the production-marketing process.
This problem is national in scope and is due in part to two factors. First, the nursery
industry has not been included in state and federal data collection efforts as have
some of the more traditional commodities like citrus, wheat, cotton, corn, and
soybeans. Second, the diversity and number of nursery crops produced annually runs
into the thousands. Consequently, to address researchable topics in a meaningful
way, investigators must often rely on periodic and costly primary data collection
studies. Addressing the impact of IRCA on the supply and availability of labor in
Florida illustrates this point.
 This manuscript utilizes three separate studies to evaluate the labor supply
 issue. First, a wage and benefits study conducted for the Florida Foliage Association
 in 1987 is summarized. The major purpose is to provide a benchmark from which
 comparisons can be made with the other two sources. A second source of labor
 information is derived from the Nursery Business Analysis Program (NBA) at the
 University of Florida. This program collects detailed financial information annually
 from a sample of nursery firms. From this data base, labor information was extracted
 for the period 1984-1991. Finally, a third source of data were generated by
 replicating key portions of a labor study conducted by Polopolus, et al in 1988.
 Questions addressing labor availability and the impact of IRCA were repeated to a
 sample of 54 nursery firms. Results were contrasted directly with the 1988 study.


 Background on Florida's Nursery Industry

 Nursery and greenhouse crops represent the seventh largest agricultural
 industry in the United States, with a total value of $8.4 billion at the wholesale level
 in 1991 (12). Florida was the second leading state in terms of production with an
 industry value of $957.8 million in 1988. This compared with California's $2.15


 'Paper presented at the WRCC-76 Conference on Immigration Reform and U.S. Agriculture,
 March 30, 1993.
 2Associate Professor and Economic Analyst, Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida,
 Gainesville.