Also Suffer Unemployment is equally critical in rural areas and small towns. In fact, unemployment is actually higher in non-metropolitan areas. Clearly, job growth in rural areas has lagged behind both urban and suburban areas. Of course, transportation, too, can prove a barrier. Just as in center cities, transportation is too often unavailable to jobless rural residents.
Many experts expect a migration from both rural and center city areas to suburban job markets.
Some even predict that state welfare plans will include relocation measures to take people where the jobs are. As part of its welfare reform plan, the state of Kentucky called for a relocation task force or commission. Hughes sees lots of incentives in the welfare reform law for rural counties and central city areas to pay for relocation. Others agree, forecasting that history will repeat itself with widespread migration from jobless areas to employment centers. D.C. Rural areas and center cities, which have already suffered economically, can scarcely afford to pay such a price.