Rural jobs grew in June but still 1.4 million lower than last year, and many rural areas lost jobs; see county-level data

Employment change from May to June 2020; Daily Yonder map.
Click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

Nonmetropolitan counties gained about 610,000 jobs from May to June, putting total rural employment at 19.1 million jobs, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. That's a 3.3 percent growth rate, compared to a nationwide rate of 3.9%, Bill Bishop and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. The largest cities, those with 1 million residents, saw the highest job-growth rate, at 4.2%, while many rural areas and states with large rural populations saw job losses.

Part of the reason for the slower rural growth is that rural areas lost fewer jobs during the pandemic's economic shutdown this spring. But counties of all population sizes are faring worse than they were a year ago. Rural America had 1.4 million fewer jobs in June 2020 than in June 2019, a 6.8% drop. The largest cities had 10% fewer jobs, in comparison, Bishop and Marema report.