Although the industry has often been thriving, the current state of the economy is turning many workers to the fields looking for farming jobs in Florida.
Particularly for Marion County, where horse farms constitute 15 percent of the labor force, jobs are skim and workers are plentiful. Amid hard economic times, a number of job seekers have turned up looking for work. Many of these workers are people who were recently laid off from the construction industry, according to an article by Ocala.com.
However, with the current escalating price of everything from hay to fuel, horse farm owners in Florida are maintaining money by cutting their operations. Cost cutting is becoming necessary for many owners, and some owners are cutting jobs. This leaves job seekers with little or no field experience with few options for making ends meet in this industry.
Gerardo Aguirre, an assistant horse trainer at Linwood Stables in West Marion County, said many people have been calling him looking for work.
“This time around, there’s more coming,” he said in the article. “I know them and I know they are somewhat desperate. They call me at my house, they show up at my house. Before, they would only show up at the ranch. One wants to help them, but if there’s no horses…”
For years, many workers have migrated to the state in hopes of securing a Florida job in horse farming, crop farming or construction. While these positions used to provide out-of-state or out-of-country workers with good wages, some employees are having trouble maintaining them.
“What I make here in a day, it takes me a week to earn in Mexico,” Damian T. Cisneros, a horse farm worker, said in the article. “It’s not too high a salary, but here we have the advantage of being provided housing and not having to pay for electricity.”
Cisneros began working in horse farms by cleaning stables for $7.50 per hour, but now makes more than $9 per hour as a groom, responsible for watching, feeding and medicating animals.
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