Numerous factors — including population growth, education, housing, transportation, child care, health, and broadband availability — are shaping the differences in employment outcomes between rural and urban communities.
When immigration is restricted in rural areas, native workers don't seem to fill the jobs left empty.
Examining commuting behavior helps show how connected counties are in the Fifth Federal Reserve District.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, have people moved away from urban cores in favor of more rural areas?
Housing and transportation represent the two largest living expenses in most households, but local investment can address households’ travel needs.
Although U.S. employment in manufacturing has decreased since the 1980s, the industry has become a vital employer in rural areas, where it pays above-average wages.
Intermediary organizations, including anchor institutions, rural development hubs, and collective impact backbone organizations, play an important role in rural capacity building.
President Tom Barkin discusses critical investments to support rural economic development.
The Richmond Fed brought together leaders from five states last month for the inaugural Rural Intermediary Leadership Retreat.
The Richmond Fed partnered recently with two rural-focused organizations to host the Rebounding Stronger Summit in Cherokee, North Carolina.
The New River Valley Regional Commission is an example of how a regional development organization can galvanize innovative, sustainable regional and local housing strategies to serve its small towns and rural communities.
The GoodCare Program in Virginia helps aspiring workers complete career pathways in health care, addressing workforce shortages in a sector essential to equitable pandemic recovery.
In Florence County, the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing Technology and its Gould Business Incubator are fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem and fueling small business development in South Carolina.
The Danville region in Virginia has moved the needle on early childhood education and now has an ecosystem in place to help address future challenges.
Sierra Latham and Stephanie Norris discuss the challenges of collecting socioeconomic data on small towns and rural areas, how data analysts address them, and the value of that work in analyzing and improving the Richmond Fed's understanding of these communities.
Nicolas Morales reviews his research on the economic role of non-native workers in rural areas. Morales is an economist at the Richmond Fed.
Host Tim Sablik discusses his recent research on the value of entrepreneurs in the economic growth of rural places and small towns, as well as the obstacles that they face compared to more urban communities. Sablik also talks with Erika Bell and Laura Ullrich about what they have learned from their contacts in North Carolina and South Carolina about rural entrepreneurship. Bell is community development regional manager for the Carolinas and Ullrich is a regional economist in the Richmond Fed's Charlotte branch.
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