The structure of nonmetro employment has become increasingly diverse and decreasingly agricultural. The precise policy implications of these shifts are not self-evident, but the increasingly nonagricultural character of the rural economy is at the heart of the population turnaround. (Author/KR)

In the late 1970s both jobs and population were growing more rapidly outside metropolitan areas. As a group, nonmetropolitan counties not adjacent to a metropolitan area experienced a faster rate of employment growth than metropolitan areas between 1975-79. Even in rural counties (no urban place of 2,500 or more) not adjacent to a metropolitan…

Using in-person questionnaires, 553 newcomers and 106 long-term residents were interviewed in late 1979 and early 1980 in 5 small northern California communities to explore the role of newcomers in developing the rural economy, and especially to analyze the resources emigrants bring with them: their skills, education, background, and business and…

Emphasizing developmental problems caused by the rapid population and employment growth in rural America during the 1970's, this document describes social, economic, and governmental trends in rural America and suggests some federal policy choices that might be made in support of rural development. Problem areas and policy suggestions are…

Eleven papers on rural economic development cover challenges and opportunities; employment trends affecting nonmetropolitan areas; status of nonmetropolitan women and minorities; case studies of Vermont, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and California; western urban and regional development; economic development in small cities; and rural policy…