Job rates in the rural corners of the US continue to rebound, according to theThe Daily Yonder. However, while the picture was generally rosy in the nation at large, the Panhandle of Texas and the state of Kansas still saw job losses and a rise in the unemployment rate.
Even so, over the past year, two-thirds of US rural counties added jobs, according to new federal data. The nationwide rural unemployment rate also fell during the period, to 5.8 percent. That rate is still higher than the US urban unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.
Nationwide, rural counties gained almost 220 thousand jobs in the last 12 months. Job growth on the East and West Coasts was impressive, while rural job losses continued in the eastern coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia.