Rural Income, Poverty, and Welfare: Nonfarm Earnings

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Nonmetro real earnings per nonfarm job stood at $31,582 in 2004. Micropolitan areas (counties with cities of 10,000 to 49,999 residents and socio-economically tied adjacent counties) had real earnings of $32,975 while noncore areas (counties with neither a city over 10,000 residents or socio-economically tied to a city of that size) had real earnings of $29,234. Nonmetro earnings per job increased 4.6 percent from the 2001 recession to 2004: 4.8 percent in micropolitan areas and 4.4 percent in noncore areas. Metro earnings increased by 3.5 percent between 2001 and 2004. Nonmetro earnings grew faster than metro immediately following the recession, but the most recent data show metro earnings per job rising faster (1.8 percent compared with 1.1 percent in nonmetro areas between 2003 and 2004). This growth is still not enough to equalize post-recession rates.

Between 1993 and 2004, nonmetro earnings grew less than half as fast as metro earnings. Nonmetro areas averaged 0.5 percent annual growth in real earnings, while metro earnings averaged 1.2 percent per year. With slower growth through 2000 and a decline in real earnings in 2001, the gap between nonmetro and metro earnings per nonfarm job widened.

In 1993, nonmetro earnings were 72 percent of metro earnings; by 2004, that ratio had fallen to 67 percent. Earnings in noncore areas were 67 percent of metro earnings in 1993 and fell to 62 percent in 2004. Micropolitan area earnings are higher than noncore area earnings, but they also fell relative to metro earnings, from 76 percent in 1993 to 70 percent in 2004.

Earnings per job in nonmetro, micropolitan, and noncore areas grew at less than half the metro average annual rate during 1993-2000. However, from 2001 to 2003, following the 2001 recession, they grew faster than the metro average.

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