Who Are Day Laborers?

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.

Day laborers are not solely temporary workers.

The vast majority (83%) relies on day-labor work as their sole source of income. 70% search for work five or more days a week, while 9% seek work only one or two days a week.

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.
A significant number of day laborers are either married (36 percent) or living with a partner (7 percent), and almost two-thirds (63 percent) have children.

Day laborers are active members of their communities.

Half (52%) of all day laborers attend church regularly, one-fifth (22%) are involved in sports clubs and one-quarter (26%) participate in community worker centers.

The day-labor workforce in the United States is predominantly immigrant and Latino.

Most day laborers were born in Mexico (59%) and Central America (28%), but the third-largest group (7%) was born in the United States.
Two-fifths (40%) of day laborers have lived in the United States for more than 6 years.