Hawai'i's farm workforce in October fell 6 percent to 10,200 workers from a year earlier, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The agency said the number of self-employed farmers remained unchanged while the number of hired workers was down 8 percent.

Part of the drop involved two of Hawai'i's largest crops — pineapple and sugarcane — as Maui Land and Pineapple Co. laid off employees while Gay and Robinson decided to terminate sugarcane operations.

The average wage paid to hired workers was $13.24 per hour, up from $13.19 a year earlier.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service based its count on a mid-October survey.

Nationally, the agricultural sector employed 1.1 million workers in October, down 3 pecent from the same month a year ago. The average wage paid to workers was $10.70 an hour, up from $10.38 a year earlier.