The COVID-19 Outbreak and Food Production Workers: Who is at Risk?

This analysis is based on KFF analysis of the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS), 1-year file. The ACS includes a 1% sample of the US population; the subset of food production workers examined in this data note includes over 33,000 observations. We define the food production workforce as all individuals who earned at least $1,000 during the year and indicated that their job was in one of the food processing industry codes listed below. We include only adults age 18 and up in the analysis.

Table 1: Weighted and Unweighted Counts by Industry
Industry Code	Industry Description	Weighted Counts	Unweighted Counts
170	Crop production	1,010,087	10,601
180	Animal production and aquaculture	427,134	4,970
1180	Animal slaughtering and processing	521,694	4,372
1370	Beverage manufacturing	308,914	2,790
1280	Seafood and other miscellaneous foods, n.e.c.	253,120	2,365
1270	Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing, except retail bakeries	220,484	1,872
1070	Animal food, grain and oilseed milling	176,690	1,858
1170	Dairy product manufacturing	164,959	1,771
1090	Fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturing	173,583	1,605
1080	Sugar and confectionery products	95,651	899
1290	Not specified food industries	32,206	289

We roll up food production industries related to animal production and processing into one category based on the following categories: animal production and aquaculture; animal slaughtering and processing; animal food, grain, and oilseed milling, and dairy product manufacturing. Similarly, we include beverage manufacturing; bakeries and tortilla manufacturing, except retail bakers; sugar and confectionary productions; and not specified food industries in the food manufacturing category.

The ACS asks respondents about their health insurance coverage at the time of the survey. Respondents may report having more than one type of coverage; however, we sort individuals into only one category of insurance coverage based on a hierarchy of coverage (detailed here).

The ACS divides the United States into Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs), or geographic areas representing at least 100,000 people. PUMA’s vary in size based on population density. The USDA Economic Research Service defines metro and non-metro areas. Using the USDA method, we identify 80% of the PUMAs as solely in non-metro areas, 9% containing metro areas, and 12% containing both metro and non-metro areas. We categorize the PUMAs containing both metro and non-metro areas based on where the majority of the population lives. Using this approach, we categorize a total of 14% of the population living in a PUMA was classified as a non-metro area.