Farm families' income from off-the-farm jobs, always significant, is becoming even more important, study says

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The economic success of rural communities, especially those based on farming, is increasingly tied to "connectiveness" to nearby urban counties as more farmers rely on off-farm jobs to drive income, says a study by researchers at the University of Missouri and commissioned by CoBank, which makes loans to cooperatives, agribusinesses, rural public utilities and farm-credit associations.

Rural economies are becoming more diverse as the efficiency of modern food production has required less workers for agriculture. In 1970, 15% of nonmetropolitan county employment was agriculture-based, by 2019 it was 6.5%. 

According to the study, those who do work in agricultural production are also becoming more dependent on off-farm income. Over half the principal farm operators in the U.S. had a main job off the farm in 2017, in 1974, it was 37%. In a survey, farmers said more reliable income and health benefits were their top reasons for off-farm jobs. Half of farm households reported negative farm income in a given year. 

Rural economies are becoming more diverse as they play roles in larger regional economies that ignore county lines. Nearly 65% of the rural population lives in counties that adjoin metropolitan areas, and a willingness to commute to those areas has created more off-farm jobs. "By 2018, over half of nonmetro (54%) and farm-dependent (62%) county residents commuted outside of their county for work – up more than 10 percentage points from two decades ago," the study said. Over the past 50 years, the available work inside rural counties has become more oriented toward service jobs like healthcare, retail, professional services and restaurants. In 1970, 40% of nonmetro jobs were in those service fields and that number increased to 57% by 2019.