Non-metro unemployment rate dropped from 6.9 percent to 5.6 percent over last year

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped from September 2013 to September 2014, falling from 6.9 percent to 5.6 percent in micropolitan counties—non-metro counties with towns that have between 10,000 and 50,000 residents—while the metro unemployment rated dropped from 7 percent to 5.8 percent, Bill Bishop reports for the Daily Yonder.

"Nearly six out of 10 metropolitan and rural counties had unemployment rates in September that were below the national average of 5.7 percent," Bishop writes. "Moreover, 57 percent of rural residents lived in a county where the local unemployment rate matched or was lower than the national average in September." The eight counties with the lowest unemployment rates were all rural North Dakota counties in the heart of the oil and gas boom. (Read more) (Yonder map)