New data show small local firms create less than a third of new jobs in rural areas and are unreliable employment sources because many fail within their first 5 years of business. Local planners should consider mix of corporate affiliates offering potential of many jobs and small independent firms. (NEC)

This report questions whether high-tech development is an option for rural counties in the United States by examining the spatial location, industrial composition, growth experience, and environmental factors associated with high-tech industries in such counties. Using a highly detailed database of manufacturing plants and estimates of employment,…

The conference reported in this proceedings brought together states' rural development policymakers in an effort to identify the programs and research needed to establish successful state policies. Topics of papers presented at the conference and included in the proceedings covered: (1) telecommunications and computer technology as sources of…

Independent (single-establishment) businesses with fewer than 100 employees accounted for 31% of the net increase in private nonfarm jobs in nonmetropolitan areas between 1976 and 1980, when the nation's employment was expanding rapidly. Those independent businesses which were in operation less than 5 years in 1980 created jobs at a net rate of…