Rural unemployment decreases slowly, and shifts

Unemployment is declining very slowly in rural America. Though unemployment is still higher in rural areas, at 9 percent, than in urban, 8.7 percent, the rate is almost one full percentage point lower this year than last, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder says the most interesting thing about this data is the changes in location of rural workers.

There are more than 200,000 new workers in rural areas this year, and that gain was evenly spread across the country. However, some counties experienced great losses, like Mohave, Yavapai and Coconino counties in Arizona, which lost a combined 19,000 workers. Oil and natural-gas boom areas, such as Williams County, North Dakota, show great increases in workers.

North Dakota has the lowest rural jobless rate, 3.9 percent. Nebraska has the second lowest rate at 4.3 percent.The highest rates are in California (13.7) and Massachusetts (13.1). The largest gap between rural and urban unemployment was in Massachusetts, where the urban figure is 7.5. North and South Carolina continue to have one of the highest rates, both at 11.8 percent.

The 10 states with the highest rural unemployment rates are California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Michigan and Georgia. For a table and Bishop's article, click here.