OMAHA, Neb. — Rural America lost more population in the latest census, highlighting an already severe worker shortage in the nation's farming and ranching regions and drawing calls from those industries for immigration reform to help ease the problem.

The census data released last week showed that population gains in many rural areas were driven by increases in Hispanic and Latino residents, many of whom come as immigrants to work on farms or in meatpacking plants or to start their own businesses.

“We've struggled on this issue for a long time to try to come up with a more reasonable, common-sense approach,” said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, which is part of a group lobbying Congress for new immigration laws. Vilifying immigrants “just makes it harder to get there.”

Some Republican state legislators blamed the labor scarcity on supplemental unemployment benefits, which they say create a disincentive to work because they pay more than some low-wage jobs. Democrats see a persistent labor crisis.

The problem is just as bad for poultry farmers in North Carolina, where meat processors help power the economies of many rural counties. Half of the state's 100 counties have lost residents since 2010, the census data showed.

Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation, predicted that labor shortages at poultry plants will only worsen as people continue to leave rural communities and migrant workers gravitate to other industries, such as building and construction.