Day labor is a vocation
- Day labor is becoming a professionalized vocation, where men and women workers have the opportunity to earn a living by offering valuable services to employers.
- Graton day laborers are committed to improving their skills, and to developing themselves as reliable, safe, and skilled workers.
- The work of day labor centers is vital to ensure that day labor employment relationships are structured as mutually beneficial and respectful relationships.
- Many day laborers support themselves and their family through this work.
- The need for day laborers to earn an income, in most cases, is made all the more urgent by the responsibility to support their family.
According to a U.S. study on Day Labor in 2006:
- Approximately 117,600 workers are either looking for day-labor jobs or working as day laborers on any given day.
- The vast majority (79%) of hiring sites are informal and include workers standing in front of businesses (24%), home improvement stores (22%), gas stations (10%) and on busy streets (8%).
- 1 out of every 5 day laborers (21%) search for work at day-labor worker centers.
The day-labor workforce in the United States is predominantly immigrant and Latino.
- The day laborers who utilize CLG’s services are predominately migrating people from rural communities in Mexico and Central America.
- Many speak indigenous languages such as Chatino, Huave, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Zapotec and Triqui as well as various Mayan dialects.
- With the current high unemployment rates in Sonoma County, CLG has seen a rise (albeit small) in the number of U.S. born Anglo, African-American and Latino workers seeking employment at the center.
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