The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spotlighting employment patterns across rural America in its latest Rural America at a Glance report, offering new insights into how rural jobs have evolved over the past decade. The report examines employment changes from 2014 through 2024, comparing rural and urban labor trends and revealing how broader economic forces have shaped local economies.
USDA research economist Tracy Farraghan explains that rural and urban employment followed similar trajectories over the past ten years, largely influenced by macroeconomic conditions. As Farrigan notes:
“So we look at, for example, a change in employment starting in 2014 every year up until 2024.
And what we see is sort of a pattern based on what’s going on in the macroeconomy in terms of you look at both rural and urban employment changes, they kind of experienced growth before the pandemic, declined during the pandemic, followed by recovery, and more recently, stabilization period. But those changes were much more significant in urban areas than they were in rural, but still rural followed that pattern.”
While rural areas mirrored national trends, the magnitude of employment shifts was smaller compared to urban regions. This relative stability has been a defining characteristic of the rural economy during periods of economic volatility.
The report also breaks down employment changes by industry, highlighting which sectors contributed most to recent growth. Farrigan points out that from 2023 to 2024, rural job gains were concentrated in higher-skilled service sectors:
“For rural areas from 2023 to 2024, the industry that grew the most was management of companies and enterprises, followed by professional, scientific, and technical services.”
At the same time, several traditional rural industries experienced job losses. According to Farraghan:
“And then the ones that where we saw a decline happened to be in a lot of our more traditional industries, such as wholesale trade, manufacturing, utilities, mining, agriculture.”
Despite declines in these long-standing sectors, overall rural employment still increased. Farrigan emphasizes that growth in expanding industries offset losses elsewhere, resulting in a net positive employment change:
“So that’s why we get the overall positive increase in employment for rural areas.”
Together, these findings from the USDA’s Rural America at a Glance report provide valuable insight into how rural communities are adapting, diversifying, and stabilizing in a changing economic landscape.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.