The largest U.S. urban areas, with populations of 1 million or more, enjoyed a 2-percent expansion in the number of jobs since last June, while in rural counties “job growth was a bit more than a tenth of that rate, or 0.29 percent, or about 60,000 jobs,” reports the Daily Yonder. In the 924 counties that are not adjacent to any metropolitan area, the number of jobs declined by just over 1,000.
The Yonder said that Bureau of Labor Statistics reports “since the end of the recession in 2009 have shown lackluster job growth in rural counties. Meanwhile, the nation’s largest cities have been adding jobs at a steady clip.” In addition, the Yonder says that the rural workforce has shrunk by 105,000 people, or 0.5 percent, in the year that ended in June. “That has helped keep rural unemployment rates low, but it indicates that the economy in many rural areas is hollowing out.”
“Since everything in the country these days is political, we checked to see if the rate of job growth differed in counties voting for President Donald Trump from those that supported Democrat Hillary Clinton,” said the Yonder. “It did … Clinton counties have 56 percent of the total jobs in the country. In the last year, Clinton counties gained 1.57 million jobs. Trump counties gained 940,000 jobs.”
Trump carried rural America by a 2-to-1 landslide, according to exit polling. Clinton carried urban areas by nearly as large a margin. Trump and Clinton split the suburbs, 50-45.