Rural farm counties weather recession

Nonmetro counties classified by ERS as dependent on farming have historically lagged other nonmetro counties in growth. However, with agriculture generally thriving through the recession and recovery period, farm counties have had relatively healthy growth since 2009. Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics show that 18 percent of farm counties lost jobs in 2009-2011, but this was a far lower than the 45 percent proportion found among other nonmetro counties. Some of the gain in farm counties was due to growth in shale mining for oil and gas. This chart is based on the County Typology Codes, found on the ERS website.

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