Rural unemployment drops, but number of jobs doesn't change

The unemployment rate in rural and exurban counties dropped slightly in August, the Daily Yonder reports. It fell to 7.99 percent in rural counties and 7.6 in exurban, which are counties within metropolitan areas, but with half the residents living in rural settings, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The rural rate in July was 8.4 percent, and 8 percent in exurban. Almost nine out of 10 rural counties reported lower unemployment rates this year. (Yonder map shows rural, exurban unemployment change from Aug. 2011 to Aug. 2012; Blue counties had a decrease, orange had an increase.)

"Just because unemployment rates are lower, however, doesn't mean that there's been a boom in rural employment," Yonder Co-Editor Bill Bishop reports. There are slightly fewer people employed in rural counties this August than last August. The number of jobs in rural counties has decreased by almost 3,200 over the past year, according to the BLS. Bishop writes the rural unemployment rate has dropped because the workforce has dropped by almost 230,000 people. The workforce in exurban and urban counties increased during that period.

Four of the 10 rural counties with the largest unemployment increases over the last year were Appalachian coal-producing counties in Kentucky, where coal companies have laid off miners due to power-plant competition from natural gas. West Virginia's Boone County had the greatest unemployment increase. The rest of the top counties with the largest unemployment increases come from Nebraska, Louisiana and Colorado. Almost half the 50 counties with the largest declines in unemployment rates were in Mississippi. (Read more)

Rural unemployment continues to rise slowly

Unemployment in rural areas continued to rise in July, reaching 8.4 percent in the 2,000-plus rural counties in the U.S., according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The rate has been rising since April, when it was 7.7 percent. A year ago it was 9.1 percent. Unemployment continues to be slightly higher in urban areas than in rural. In July, unemployment in urban areas was 8.7 percent. Suburbs were lower.

Click map for a larger version

Since last July, almost two out of three rural and exurban counties gained employment, Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder and Roberto Gallardo of the Center for Rural Affairs report. They note "certain regional patterns:" Pacific coast states had a high number of rural counties that lost jobs since July 2011, the Great Plains had job losses, but not in the oil and gas drilling regions. Rural Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Georgia have gained large numbers of jobs. (Read more) (Yonder map)

Rural job-growth rate is half that of urban areas

Daily Yonder map; click on it for larger version

Jobs in rural counties grew only half as fast as in urban counties in the last year, Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder found after analyzing figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They show that in the 12 months beginning in June 2011, the latest period for which county data is available, jobs in urban counties increased by 1.77 percent while those in rural counties rose only 0.86 percent. Exurban counties had 1.6 percent more jobs, the same as the national rate. (Exurban counties lie within standard metropolitan statistical areas, but have half their residents living in rural settings.)

In real numbers, that means that in rural counties, there are 194,000 more jobs this June than June a year ago. In exurban counties, there are 201,000 more jobs and in urban counties there are 1,874,000.

 Many counties lost jobs over the last year, Bishop notes. One-third of rural and exurban counties had fewer people working this June than last. The largest disparity between rural and urban employment in June 2012 was in South Carolina, where the unemployment rate in June was 8.9 percent in urban areas and 12.2 in rural counties. The rural unemployment rate was in double digits in eight other states: Arizona (11%); California (12.1); Georgia (11); Mississippi (10.9); North Carolina (11); Oregon (10); and Tennessee (10.4). (Read more)

Rural incomes are lower because jobs in rural areas require fewer skills, researchers confirm

Rural residents have lower incomes than those employed in the cities. The Daily Yonder's Bill Bishop reports that three economists, working through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, have figured out why, at least in part. As you might expect, they have concluded that the occupations found in rural areas require fewer skills than those found in the cities. (Detail of Diego Rivera mural, Detroit Institute of Art)

“We find that the occupation clusters most prevalent in urban areas — scientists, engineers, and executives — are characterized by high levels of social and resource-management skills, as well as the ability to generate ideas and solve complex problems,” write Jaison Abel, Todd Gabe and Kevin Stolarick. “By contrast, the occupation clusters that are most prevalent in rural areas — machinists, makers, and laborers — are among the lowest in terms of required skills. These differences in the skill content of work shed light on the pattern of earnings observed across the urban-rural hierarchy."

Their findings further explain why young people with college degrees are reluctant to move back to rural communities. Jobs in those communities simply do not pay what can be earned in central cities. Still, compensation favors these city occupations, the economists find. Executives earn the most in the cities, far more than engineers or scientists. Executives living in rural areas don't earn the same premium. In fact, notes Bruce Ross of The Record Searchlight after looking at the data, "for each high skill occupation, wages fell as the community became more rural. Every occupational group had lower wages in rural areas than in cities, but the rural penalty was higher among the most skilled jobs."

The economists finally add that there is something about urban areas that facilitate high-skilled employment and higher wages: “The dimensions of social and complex problem-solving skills are apt to benefit from the flows of ideas and knowledge that are facilitated by dense urban environments.” The economists' report is here.

Rural counties gained jobs overall last year, due in large measure to gas boom, but not all prospered

Rural America saw an overall gain in jobs over the last year, but those jobs were not distributed evenly across rural counties, according to a data analysis by the Daily Yonder. Last May, the rural unemployment rate was 8.7 percent, almost one percentage point higher than this May, but about one-third of the 2,036 rural counties across the country lost jobs during that time, Bill Bishop reports. (Yonder map)

Bishop writes the rates change significantly from county to county. North Dakota contains four counties that saw the largest gains in employment, mainly from oil and gas drilling, and also the county that saw the largest losses. The 10 states with that gained the most jobs in rural counties over the last year are North Dakota, Montana, Texas and Colorado. These gains are likely due to the natural gas boom in those states, which has exponentially increases employment. The 10 states with the biggest losses are North Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Minnesota and North Carolina, with the biggest percentage loss in North Dakota at 20.3 percent.