As the debate about whether people prefer to live in the suburbs or the big city rages on, data from the U.S. Census reveals a clear preference on the part of economic trends in the wake of the Great Recession.
"Americans in small towns and rural communities are dramatically less likely to start new businesses than they have been in the past," reports Jim Tankersley, who also adds that such an unprecedented trend "jeopardizes the economic future of vast swaths of the country."
The data inspiring the article comes from a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Economic Innovation Group. The data reveals a complicated narrative for the economic recovery following the Great Recession. Namely: "[what] growth has occurred has been largely confined to a handful of large and innovative areas," like the Silicon Valley, New York City, and parts of Texas.
As for the causes of the consolidation of economic growth, the report identifies a few concurrent trends that have all harmed small businesses in rural America. "Those include the rise of big-box retailers such as Walmart, the loss of millions of manufacturing and construction jobs across the country and a pullback in business lending that appears to have stung small-town and rural borrowers particularly hard," according to Tankersley.
The article includes more details of the data found in the report, as well as data from additional sources on the issue of economic growth. The Washington Post also produced an "explainer" video to help make sense of the jobs report, which can be found below.
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research