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Farm Labor Markets in the United States and Mexico Pose Challenges for U.S. Agriculture
EIB-201, November 28, 2018The U.S. farm labor market shows many signs of tightening, including a shrinking supply of farm labor from rural Mexico—the source of most foreign-born farmworkers in the United States. Immigration trends suggest that rural Mexico is not likely to generate a steady supply of farmworkers for U.S. agriculture over the long term.
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Rural America at a Glance, 2018 Edition
EIB-200, November 07, 2018After peaking in 2013, rural poverty rates decreased across all racial and ethnic groups, although they continue to be significantly higher among racial/ethnic minority groups than for non-Hispanic Whites.
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Educational Attainment a Key Factor in Rural Patient Uptake of Telehealth Activities
Amber Waves, November 05, 2018Compared to traditional medical delivery systems, telehealth allows people to actively participate in their health care and also facilitates more timely and convenient monitoring of ongoing conditions. An ERS study found that education is strongly associated with telehealth participation, which increased with each successively higher level of educational attainment in 2015.
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Rural Individuals' Telehealth Practices: An Overview
EIB-199, November 05, 2018ERS analyzes rural residents' use of three basic telehealth activities associated with improved health care.
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Selected Charts from Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials, October 2018
AP-080, October 30, 2018This collection of charts and maps presents examples of key statistics on the farm sector, food spending and prices, food security, rural communities, agricultural production and trade, the interaction of agriculture and natural resources, and more found in ERS's regularly updated web product, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials.
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Innovation Can Make Rural Manufacturers More Resilient
Amber Waves, October 01, 2018Does the degree of innovation make a difference in the survival of rural manufacturers? To answer this question, ERS researchers examined a set of manufacturing plants that were surveyed in 1996 and again in 2013. Compared to a representative sample of all rural manufacturing plants, the long-lived plants were more likely to be substantive innovators and less likely to be non-innovators.
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Child Poverty Heavily Concentrated in Rural Mississippi, Even More So Than Before the Great Recession
Amber Waves, July 02, 2018The share of children living in poverty in the U.S. remains higher than it was before the Great Recession. According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 20 percent of children were living in poverty in 2016, compared with 18 percent in 2007. Child poverty rates continue to be highest in the South and Southwest, particularly along the Mississippi Delta.
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Ownership of Oil and Gas Rights: Implications for U.S. Farm Income and Wealth
EIB-193, June 26, 2018Because of the shale revolution, U.S. annual oil and gas production grew by 69 percent in 2005-14, with almost 67 percent of production in 2014 occurring on farmland.
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Impacts of the Value-Added Producer Grant Program on Business Outcomes
Amber Waves, May 07, 2018Impacts of the Value-Added Producer Grant Program on Business Outcomes
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USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant Program and Its Effect on Business Survival and Growth
ERR-248, May 07, 2018The probability of business survival for Value-Added Producer Grant recipients 2 years after the grant is about 89% higher than comparable nonrecipients; a $100,000 increase in the size of the grant increases survival chances by 47%.
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Farmland Values, Land Ownership, and Returns to Farmland, 2000-2016
ERR-245, February 21, 2018Average farm real estate values grew from $1,483 per acre in 2000 to $3,060 in 2015. Cropland appreciated faster than pastureland. In 2003-14, cropland values increased most in the Corn Belt, Northern Plains, Lake States, and Delta States.
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Rural Healthcare Facilities Had Modest Job Growth, but No Measurable Employment Impact on Other Sectors
Amber Waves, February 05, 2018Rural inpatient healthcare facilities—including hospitals and nursing care facilities—may improve the health and economic well-being of local communities. Between 2007 and 2010, rural inpatient healthcare jobs increased by 26,000 (2.3%). Rural inpatient healthcare accounted for 7.6% of total rural wage and salary employment in 2001 (over 1.1 million jobs) and grew to 8.1% by 2015.
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Small Business Loans and Rural Business Growth
Amber Waves, February 05, 2018Access to readily available capital can help rural small businesses succeed. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) encourages financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of low-income residents and smaller firms. Between 2000 and 2015, small business loan amounts per capita in rural counties lagged behind urban counties.
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Employment Spillover Effects of Rural Inpatient Healthcare Facilities
ERR-241, December 20, 2017From 2001 to 2015, inpatient healthcare facilities experienced modest employment gains in rural counties despite the effects of the Great Recession. However, rural healthcare jobs do not have strong spillover effects on jobs in other sectors.
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Rural America at a Glance, 2017 Edition
EIB-182, November 16, 2017The rural population is shrinking due to outmigration of young adults, fewer births, increased mortality among working-age adults, and an aging population. Rural job growth since 2011 has been well below the urban growth rate.
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Rural Manufacturing Survival and Its Role in the Rural Economy
Amber Waves, October 25, 2017Manufacturing provides more jobs and higher earnings in rural areas than many other sectors. Manufacturing is also relatively more important to the rural than urban economy. However, U.S. manufacturing employment has been declining since the 1950s. A better understanding of the factors affecting the survival of rural manufacturing plants may help develop strategies to retain these jobs.
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Selected Charts from Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials, October 2017
AP-078, October 18, 2017Examples from ERS's updated collection of 70 charts/maps covering key U.S. statistics on ag production and trade, farm income, food spending and prices, food security, rural communities, and natural resources and the environment.
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Grassroots Innovation Widespread in Rural Areas and Concentrated in Manufacturing
Amber Waves, October 02, 2017Innovation can contribute to dynamic and resilient local economies by introducing new goods, services, or ways of doing business that add value to benefit consumers. Research on rural innovation has largely focused on increases in agricultural productivity—leaving the potential contributions of the rural nonfarm economy only thinly studied.
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Innovation in the Rural Nonfarm Economy: Its Effect on Job and Earnings Growth, 2010-2014
ERR-238, September 19, 2017Innovation-intensive industries in rural and urban areas.
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Veterans Are Positioned To Contribute Economically to Rural Communities
Amber Waves, September 05, 2017Veterans are a rapidly aging and increasingly diverse group disproportionally represented by rural Americans. Nearly 19 million veterans lived in the United States in 2015, about 3.4 million of them were located in rural areas. Examining data from the U.S. Census Bureau can reveal information about who they are, where they live, the type of work they do, and how they fare economically.