Low-Skill Jobs: A Shrinking Share of the Rural Economy

A signature feature of the 20th-century US economy was the rise in skills required by employers. Jobs involving physical, routine tasks consequently declined as a share of national employment, and their historical predominance in rural areas is waning. Today, most low-skill jobs in rural areas are in the service sector - government, trade, and consumer and business services - rather than in the goods production sector represented by agriculture, mining, construction, and manufacturing, Yet the transition to a service economy has been accompanied by rising skill and earnings levels in rural areas, in part because the typical service job is less likely to be low-skill than the typical goods production job. According to some observers, the shift from a goods-based to a service-based economy has inhibited rural America's movement along a high-skill economic path. A more favorable view holds that the goods-to-services shift indicates convergence with higher skilled urban economies.