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While workforce trends like return-to-office mandates and rage applying might dominate the headlines, there’s an equally important topic that doesn’t get the same level of attention: the future of work in rural America.

Why is this an issue? Or, more to the point, why should an urban audience concern itself with it? Because, as the G.R.O.W.™ Generating Rural Opportunities in the Workforce™ report reveals, what happens to the rural workforce affects us all.

“It’s time for everyone to start thinking about the country overall and leveraging all our capabilities across the board,” says Raghu Krishnaiah, the chief operating officer at ��������ʿ�����¼.

Commissioned by ��������ʿ�����¼ and the Center on Rural Innovation, the G.R.O.W. report pulls back the curtain on what life and employment are like in rural America. Here, we take a closer look at those challenges, trends and opportunities.

Since at least the Industrial Revolution, the narrative about the rural workforce has mentioned exodus. Whether driven by the excitement or economics of a big-city job, young people have migrated out of the countryside for more than a century.

“If you look back at the history of a lot of small towns across the country, you’ll see that they had their highest population levels at the turn of the last century,” says Bill Menner, the founder of the rural-development consulting firm The Bill Menner Group.

That has left rural communities with a dwindling, aging and often less economically robust population who must face certain stressors with fewer resources. Consider these findings from the G.R.O.W. report:

• 58% of rural workers report feeling stressed about paying bills compared with 49% of nonrural workers.
• 52% of rural workers report feeling stressed about paying for essentials like groceries compared with 44% of nonrural workers.
• 40% of rural workers report feeling stressed about supporting their families compared with 25% of nonrural workers.

That stress appears well-founded. “The rural workforce [is] more than twice as likely to rely on assistance for food and utility costs relative to those in nonrural areas,” the G.R.O.W. report states.

No wonder people are hightailing it out of rural communities.

The sheer number of people considering leaving, though, is worrisome. The G.R.O.W. report notes that more than two-thirds of rural Gen Zers and millennials have considered relocating because they view their employment opportunities limited.

“I was surprised 75% are actually thinking of moving out,” Krishnaiah says. “That’s huge. … There isn’t enough housing right now in urban areas. … So where are people going to live? It’s [also] going to [increase] the cost of living even more. … So, you’re going to create more inequity than you have today. That’s a problem.”

Menner, however, is not without hope. Younger workers — no matter where they live — want to leverage opportunities made more available through technology. As he puts it: “If you think about the opportunities that exist through technology, whether it’s educational opportunities that come online, or job opportunities from remote work, that’s something that I think young people are interested in exploring.”

Access to the internet and other technology is one thing. The quality of said resources is another. As noted in the G.R.O.W. report:

• 11% of nonrural residents rate the quality of technology as poor, but 36% of rural residents make that assessment.
• 32% of rural workers rate the quality of internet service as poor or fair, while 10% of nonrural workers do.

So, what’s a well-intentioned society to do? Menner, who engages regularly with issues like these, sums it up this way: Millions of Americans don’t have the services they need, which excludes them from opportunities like remote work and upskilling. Solving for that requires more than awareness.

“How do you set aside rural challenges from urban challenges?” he asks. “And convince a majority of members of Congress to vote for that? … It seems that even though there are 20 to 30% of Americans who actually live in small towns, a lot of decisions are made that don’t always reflect what their specific needs are.”