ABSTRACT
Local labor markets (LMAs) are basic units of economic and social organization defined by the relationship between place-of-work and place-of residence. This chapter explores the effects of industrial composition and location of LMAs on part-time farm households in the South. It focuses on the impact of the rural crisis for farm families in agriculturally dependent LMAs. There can be little argument that the social and economic prominence of agricultural production in the South has steadily diminished. The family farm, which remains the principal unit of agricultural production, has been steadily dropping in numbers since the 1940s. A growing interdependence between the nonfarm local economy and agricultural production was accelerated by a sharp increase in off-farm employment by form family members, especially women. Looking at differences across LMA types, formers in metropolitan LMAs fere better in their off-form earnings than do form men outside of these LMAs.
