A new study shows that rural counties with a strong recreation industry across the country were more likely to regain the jobs they lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new analysis from The Daily Yonder, a rural media outlet, shows that while rural counties have not fully recovered jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, those with strong recreational industry presence were more likely to regain jobs. The recreation industry includes travel and tourism, sports, arts and entertainment, and eco-leisure. The Daily Yonder reports:
Rural America overall still hasn’t regained the jobs it lost in the first months of the pandemic in 2020, as we’ve reported. But rural recreation-dependent counties – whose economies rely on businesses built around natural amenities, tourism, and activities like hiking and skiing – have 1.1% more jobs today than they did three years ago.
However, fewer rural recreation counties had rebounded to their pre-pandemic job numbers compared to urban counties: fifty-four percent fully recovered from the pandemic, while 73 percent of urban recreation areas have fully recovered.
The Daily Yonder’s data suggests that rural recreational areas have a variety of reasons for the stronger comeback, primarily increased growth in the area:
Previous reporting from the Yonder showed that rural recreation counties vote more Democratic, grow faster, and have higher costs of living than other rural places. They might be appealing places to relocate for those who can afford it, but challenges associated with increased demand for housing and natural resources make it hard for long-time residents who could face displacement.
Job growth might therefore be a reflection of rural recreation migrants and not necessarily increased employment rates of the long-term residents. A rural county that shows a one percent change in job growth could see no decrease in outcomes like unemployment if the increase in the number of jobs were just due to in-migration, for example.
This seems to be the case in rural recreation areas. As the population grows in rural recreation areas, so does the number of jobs (in general). And recreation areas saw the biggest gains in population growth via in-migration between 2020 and 2022, according to the latest census estimates.
How did other industries fair?
According to The Daily Yonder’s analysis:
- Rural counties dependent on the public sector, like prisons, universities, and public agencies, also regained jobs, but “just barely.” Government-dependent counties had 0.4 percent more jobs in September 2023 than they did the year before the pandemic.;
- Mining-dependent counties were the hardest hit, with 2.4 percent fewer jobs in September than before the pandemic;
- Counties where manufacturing was the primary industry were down 1.1 percent from pre-pandemic employment;
- Farming-dependent counties were down a quarter of a percent in employment; and
- “Nonspecialized” counties, where no single industry dominates the economy, were down .33 percent.
