The Daily Yonder's coverage of rural economic issues, including workforce development and the future of work in rural America, is supported in part by Microsoft.
[imgcontainer] [img:UERNov10.jpg] [source]BLS/Daily Yonder[/source] After falling for most of 2010, unemployment jumped in November. [/imgcontainer]
Unemployment in rural America turned up sharply in November, according to figures compiled by the Daily Yonder.
Unemployment jumped across the nation in November, rising from 9.1% to 9.3% nationally, according to county-by-county figures collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the rise in unemployment in rural counties was twice that of the nation. The unemployment rate in rural counties rose to 9.2% in November, up four-tenths of a percent from October’s rate of 8.8%.
Unemployment in rural counties was still lower than in urban America, however. Unemployment in urban counties rose to 9.4% in November from 9.2% in October. Unemployment in exurban counties rose from 8.4% to 8.7%.
The uptick in unemployment in rural America reverses a trend that held for most of 2010. Unemployment in rural counties peaked in January 2010 at 11.2%. The rate had been dropping throughout the year to a low in October.
In November, however, the BLS counted an increase of 92,000 rural residents who were unemployed.
And the government agency said the number of rural people employed decreased by nearly 195,000. In November, there were 21,970,000 people employed in the nation’s rural counties.
Later today, we’ll post a map showing the change in unemployment in every rural county.
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