, Columnist
Full Employment Is Good for Rural Americans But Bad for Rural America
More and more working-age people will be able to go where the better jobs are.
Where the jobs aren't.
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It's been so long since we've had strong labor markets in the U.S. that we've forgotten what kind of pain they can cause. Very low unemployment will be good for rural Americans but bad for rural America.
As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, tight labor markets are causing problems in northern New England already. The unemployment rates in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are all 3 percent or lower, compared with 4.5 percent for the U.S. as a whole. The populations of all three states skew older, and they have very low population growth. For the economy to grow at all, these states are relying on an increase in the labor force participation rate or workers to move in from elsewhere.