Washington state produced a bumper crop of agricultural jobs in 2009, though the labor pool also grew, pushing some wages down and unemployment filings up, a report released earlier this month says.

According to the 2009 Agricultural Workforce in Washington State report, employment in agriculture increased 7 percent last year, to 102,530 jobs. Ag employment is a combination of seasonal and nonseasonal jobs, but the increase last year was driven almost entirely by seasonal work in orchards, the report says.

"During the tough year for the economy, the agricultural industry was a bright spot," says Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.

Deep job cuts in construction and manufacturing likely boosted the pool of workers for agricultural jobs, while crop sizes, crop quality, and mild harvest weather increased demand for those workers.

The mild weather conditions were ideal for pruning activities, increasing demand for workers in apple, cherry, and pear orchards. From June through October, average monthly seasonal employment was up 24 percent, the report says.

Though the demand for labor was higher, wages were down between 4 percent and 10 percent for workers handling apples, cherries, and pears. That's because the supply of seasonal labor increased even more than labor demand, the report says.

More work didn't equate to longer work hours. In fact, with so many workers available, the average farm laborer worked about 10 percent fewer hours in 2009 than in the previous year.

Also, even with the additional work, more farm workers collected unemployment benefits in 2009. According to the report, that likely was due to unemployed workers from other industries taking ag jobs and pushing out existing workers. The number of agricultural workers collecting unemployment benefits was 30 percent higher than in 2008 and 40 percent higher than in 2007.

More than a quarter of the state's agricultural jobs were in Yakima County (26.1 percent), followed by the Chelan-Douglas county area (12.9 percent), and the Benton-Franklin county area (11.8 percent), the report says.