Urban Job Growth Not Replicated in Rural Communities

WASHINGTON, DC – Unemployment nationwide is at historic lows, but it doesn’t mean that everyone in the country is sharing in the growth. Actually, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job growth in rural areas continues to drag well behind the growth in urban and metropolitan areas. Almost twice as many rural counties proportionately lost jobs in the last year compared to metro job-losers. One in five (19 percent) metro counties had fewer jobs at the end of the year than at the beginning. Yet data also shows that across rural counties, over one-third (37 percent) had a net loss of jobs. Job growth was fastest in the central counties of metropolitan areas of a million or more people. Jobs in those central city counties grew by 1.8 percent in the last year.