Rural counties have 232,000 more jobs in April 2015 than in April 2014; unemployment at 5.4%

County-level data shows that rural jobs appear to be making a comeback, with 232,000 more rural jobs in April 2015 than April 2014, says the Bureau of Labor statistics. Those same counties had 330,000 fewer jobs in January 2015, compared to January 2014, Bill Bishop reports for the Daily Yonder.

The unemployment rate in rural counties also dropped to 5.4 percent in April 2015, compared to 6.2 percent in April 2014, Bishop writes. "The rate of job gain in rural America was only slightly slower than the rate of job gains in urban counties. Rural job growth was about 1.2 percent per year; the urban rate was 1.8 percent."

The unemployment rate in metro areas dropped from 5.8 percent in April 2015 to 5 percent in April 2014, Bishop writes. "Urban counties gained 2.33 million jobs between April 2014 and April 2015." (Yonder map)