Nonmetro areas suffered more in the two recessions of the early 1980's and benefited less from the 1982-89 recovery than did metro areas. More encouraging is the most recent performance of rural areas. In contrast to the 1980's trend, rural areas weathered the 1990-91 recession better than metro areas did. In 1997, 25.7 million people 16 years old and older were in the nonmetropolitan work force, either at work or looking for work. On average, 1.3 million or 5.2 percent of these workers were unemployed during the year.
Unemployment rates are particularly high among nonmetro minorities and teenagers.
In 1997, 15.4 percent of teenagers, 11.6 percent of Blacks, and 8.5 percent of Hispanics in nonmetro areas were unemployed. The nonmetro adjusted unemployment rate, which includes marginally attached workers and involuntary part-time workers, was 9.5 percent. During the 1980's, unemployment rates were consistently higher in nonmetro areas than in metro. The nonmetro adjusted unemployment rate has remained higher than the metro rate throughout the 1990's. In 1997, the nonmetro unadjusted rate of 9.5 percent was somewhat above the 8.7 percent metro rate.