[Agriculture Fact Book 98]
In 1997, 25.7 million people 16 years old and older were in the nonmetropolitan work force, either at work or looking for work. On average, 1.3 million or 5.2 percent of these workers were unemployed during the year. Unemployment rates are particularly high among nonmetro minorities and teenagers. In 1997, 15.4 percent of teenagers, 11.6 percent of Blacks, and 8.5 percent of Hispanics in nonmetro areas were unemployed. The official unemployment rate excludes those jobless people not actively seeking work, but who indicate they want or are available for work (marginally attached workers), and part-time workers who want full-time jobs. The nonmetro adjusted unemployment rate, which includes marginally attached workers and involuntary part-time workers, was 9.5 percent.
Nonmetro unemployment fell from 7.2 percent in 1992 to 5.2 percent in 1997, as rural areas participated in the continuing national economic expansion; the 1997 rate was the lowest in 23 years. During the 1980's, unemployment rates were consistently higher in nonmetro areas than in metro. Although the nonmetro rate dipped below the metro rate for a few years after the 1990-91 recession, metro and nonmetro unemployment rates were similar in 1997 (4.9 and 5.2 percent, respectively). The nonmetro adjusted unemployment rate has remained higher than the metro rate throughout the 1990's. In 1997, the nonmetro unadjusted rate of 9.5 percent was somewhat above the 8.7 percent metro rate.
Nonmetro earnings failed to keep pace with inflation during the 1980's. The inflation- adjusted, average nonmetro weekly earnings for wage and salary workers fell 12.6 percent between 1979 and 1990, from $483 to $422 (1997 dollars). Average metro weekly earnings fell a smaller 1.4 percent between 1979 and 1990. As a result, the metro/nonmetro average weekly earnings gap grew by 73.6 percent, increasing from $72 to $125 (1997 dollars). From 1990 to 1997, however, nonmetro weekly earnings increased 3.3 percent, to $436 (1997 dollars), while metro earnings were nearly unchanged, rising only 0.5 percent. About one-fifth of the widening of the metro/nonmetro earnings gap that occurred in the 1980's closed after 1990.
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