Rural Areas Fall Further Behind in Jobs

Newly available data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis confirm previous impressions that the nonmetro economy continued to lag behind metro areas over the last several years. The data give us a more precise picture showing that employment in nonmetro areas declined more during bad times and increased less in good times than in metro areas in 1979-86, a period spanning recession and recovery. Growth in nonmetro employment generally lagged behind metro employment growth in both goods-producing and service-producing industries