In the Southwest in 1996, there were more than 260,000 hunters. Hunting is a powerful part of the collective economic fabric of the United States, creating more than 700,000 jobs nationwide. The impact of spending by hunters is extraordinary. Supported 705 million jobs, nearly 1 percent of America s entire civilian labor force, in all sectors of the economy. While hunter spending figures are impressive alone, their effects are more impressive.
Rural areas are the most impacted by hunter spending.
Many rural areas depend on hunter dollars where the other job alternatives are few to none. Sportsmen s dollars often mean the difference between real jobs or hard-core unemployment.