Rural job growth stalls as urban jobs expand

"While the nation as a whole has finally clawed its way back to pre-recession job numbers, non-metro counties have seen virtually no growth in jobs in the last three years," Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. A report by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture "attributed the slower employment growth in rural areas to several factors: slow rural population growth, a lower percentage of college graduates and a higher percentage of older residents in rural areas versus metro ones." Rural areas did see growth "in agriculture and extractive industries like oil-and-gas development." (USDA graphic)