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.