YAKIMA — The state office charged with matching farmworkers with farm jobs is hitting the fields — literally — in a new effort to better understand growers' labor needs.

The project comes none too soon for some farmers who are growing increasingly wary about the potential for a worker shortage this year.

Already, some growers say they are having difficulty finding workers to prune fruit trees. Those concerns are heightened since farmers could see a larger crop following a drought year.

"It's very early in the season, but the early indications are that it will be tight, or tighter than last year," said Mike Gempler of the Washington Growers League. "Particularly with the potential for a larger crop, that's making me uneasy."

Last year, in an effort to better gauge growers' needs, the state Employment Security Department began sending officials to apple orchards in 10 Eastern Washington counties midway through the season. The goal was to increase the number of growers who list jobs with WorkSource, as well as the number of workers who apply.

According to the department, the effort resulted in a 90 percent increase in job referrals and a 61 percent increase in hires, compared with the same period in 2004.

This year, the program has been expanded to run from February through December for all agricultural industries in 21 counties, including a handful west of the Cascades where berry growers had complained about a worker shortage last year.

"Our efforts were to really go out there, sit down with the employers and understand their needs. Because as we start seeing different industries change ... it takes a skill set that is different," said Larry Sanchez, Yakima-area director for the WorkSource program.

For instance, growers have been pushed to diversify their apple crops from the largely unpopular Red Delicious to newer varieties.

"Red Delicious are easiest to pick, but farmers have had to diversify," Sanchez said. "We need to better understand what the challenges and trends are for them."

Years ago, state officials operated trailers adjacent to farm fields to sign up workers. Budget cuts — as well a court decision that ruled those workers were being discriminated against because they were not given information about nonagricultural jobs — ended the practice.

Complaints about a shortage of skilled, legal workers surfaced again last summer. Labor groups, however, called the claims bogus, contending that only growers who refuse to pay good wages or treat workers well had trouble finding farmworkers.

Even the state couldn't seem to settle the dispute. The Employment Security Department was unable to fill all job requests in the farm-heavy Yakima Valley, but officials there said they couldn't prove a shortage existed.

At the same time, the state allowed a California labor contractor to bring in foreign workers under a federal guest worker program, called H-2A. Under the program, the contractor must first prove a labor shortage exists.

The state has since refused to renew that company's license on grounds that it violated a settlement agreement over wage and labor infractions. The company, Global Horizons, has appealed.

Meanwhile, growers are increasingly uneasy about the availability of labor, Gempler said, and only a very small percentage of the hiring transactions in the industry go through WorkSource offices.

"The effort to better match skills, jobs seekers with the jobs that are available, will be helpful and will build the credibility of the system," Gempler said.

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