Rural unemployment soared in January, exceeding rates in urban and exurban counties

The rural unemployment rate increased to 11.2 percent in January, passing the rate in both urban and exurban counties. The rates in urban and exurban counties, respectively, were 10.6 and 10.4 percent, Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo report in the Daily Yonder. Mackinac and Baraga counties in Michigan had the highest rural unemployment rates at 31.2 percent and 28.6 percent respectively. Slope and Williams counties in North Dakota had the lowest at 2.4 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

The two counties with the highest and lowest rural unemployment rates refected a trend throughout the recession. "Rural unemployment has been lowest in the Great Plains," the reporters write, and "the rates have been the highest in Michigan, the Southeast and along the West Coast." However, unemployment deepened and spread in rural America in January. Compared to December's rates high unemployment counties, those with rates about 15 percent, emerged in California, Oregon, Utah and Arizona while spreading across the South and Michigan.(Read more)

The Yonder includes a number of helpful charts including one breaking down the rural, urban and exurban unemployment rates in each state and another with the 50 counties gaining and losing the most jobs since January 2009. The map below shows the unemployment rates in each U.S. rural county. An enlarged version can be seen here.