Low-Skill Employment and the Changing Economy of Rural America

Robert Gibbs ; Lorin Kusmin , and John Cromartie

United States Department of Agriculture

关键词: rural labor markets;    low-skill employment;    job skills;    human capital;    industry;    occupation;    economic development;   

RP-ID  :  ERR-10

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

美国|英语

来源: United States Department of Agriculture Publications

【 摘 要 】

This study reports trends in rural low-skill employment in the 1990s and their impact on the rural workforce. The share of rural jobs classified as low-skill fell by 2.2 percentage points between 1990 and 2000, twice the decline of the urban low-skill employment share, but much less than the decline of the 1980s. Employment shifts from low-skill to skilled occupations within industries, rather than changes in industry mix, explain virtually all of the decline in the rural low-skill employment share. The share decline was particularly large for rural Black women, many of whom moved out of low-skill blue-collar work into service occupations, while the share of rural Hispanics who held low-skill jobs increased.