The Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metro area tops every other large U.S. metro for seasonal foreign worker concentration, with employers requesting 137 workers per 10,000 resident employees in certified federal labor cases over the 12 months ending March 2026.
That's nearly triple Florida's statewide rate of 74 per 10,000 and well above the national average of 53, according to a Manifest Law analysis of U.S. Department of Labor certification data published Thursday, Aug. 6.
Land O' Lakes sits inside that metro footprint. Nurseries, greenhouses and equestrian operations line the US-41 corridor and Suncoast Parkway edge, and those are precisely the industries dominating seasonal visa filings nationally: farmworkers in crops, nurseries and greenhouses accounted for more than 533,000 H-2A positions requested, while landscaping and groundskeeping workers led H-2B filings at nearly 79,400 positions. The equine industry is also among H-2B user sectors identified in the data.
Statewide, Florida led the nation in raw demand with 78,647 certified seasonal labor requests. Of those, 57,024 were agricultural (H-2A) and 21,623 were non-agricultural (H-2B).
The numbers reflect employer requests that cleared federal labor certification, not confirmed worker arrivals. Roughly 80% of certified positions result in visas issued.
Why growers say they have no choice
The program's growth in Florida is steep. H-2A certifications nationally jumped more than 500% since 2012, and Florida accounts for more than 14% of all positions certified in fiscal year 2025, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Domestic workers aren't filling the gap.
Of more than 415,000 H-2A positions advertised in FY2025, just 182 drew a domestic applicant.
Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, told NPR in July that his members used roughly 55,000 guest workers in the past year "not because the program works well, but because growers have no other choice."
Labor costs hit nursery and greenhouse operations hardest. Wages and contract labor represent 42% of production expenses for those businesses nationally, the highest share of any agricultural sector, according to USDA Economic Research Service data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
Wage rules and what's ahead
A federal rule change effective Oct. 2, 2025, overhauled how H-2A wages are calculated. The Department of Labor estimated the new Adverse Effect Wage Rate methodology would save farmers $2.4 billion per year over 10 years. Florida's AEWR had been $16.23 per hour in 2024 and rose 10% for 2025, the largest jump among major agricultural states.
In Congress, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., introduced the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act in July 2026. The bill would remove the seasonal requirement from H-2A visas while keeping them temporary at a maximum of 350 days per year, and expand access to forestry, aquaculture and livestock sectors. It had 50 co-sponsors as of early July but no hearing date scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee.
