Rural job recovery varies by county industry

Since the Great Recession of 2008, rural employment is down 4% using the latest annual reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hardest hit are counties where mining (including oil and natural gas production) predominates. Though still in the negative, manufacturing counties are closer to pre-recession levels than other nonmetro areas. Rural counties with economies that depend on mining and other fossil fuel extraction are having the toughest time restoring jobs that were lost during the Great Recession.  Manufacturing-dominated counties have made the biggest comeback since the recession, but employment in those counties is still 2 points lower than it was 2008. These are a couple of the findings from the Daily Yonder’s quick analysis of employment in nonmetropolitan counties.