ABSTRACT
Gainful employment is critical to raise earnings of individuals and communities, alleviate underemployment, and provide the means to acquire public and private services in rural areas. Gainful employment is much more than a livelihood for individuals and an economic base for communities. Between 1970 and 1977, nonmetro wage and salary employment increased 22%, double the percentage gain in metro areas. Thus, although earnings of nonmetro workers averaged only 80 percent of those of metro workers in 1973, absolute and relative employment increases in the highest-paying US industries in nonmetro counties helped to reduce the gap. The employment turnaround has narrowed differences in income and services between metro and nonmetro areas. The unemployment rate is widely used to measure two principal needs for work force and social welfare programs: economic hardship or deprivation, which is a problem of economic equity, and underused resources, which is a problem in economic efficiency.
