Employment Growth Helps Some But Not All Nonmetro Households: A Case Study in 10 Georgia Counties

Rapid employment growth in a 10-county nonmetro area in southern Georgia provided jobs, but not for most longer term resident households whose head lived in the area through 1976-81. Despite the area's impressive job growth during 1976-81, only 20 percent of the longer term resident households had more workers in 1981 than in 1976. Average income levels for longer term residents plunged as more household members no longer worked (quit, retired) or reduced their annual hours worked. But households headed by women, blacks, and the elderly maintained their income position. The expanded employment enabled some households to escape poverty, but did not reduce the area's overall poverty rate because age or disability kept many of the poor from working.