Profiling Farming Counties Using Employment- and Income-Based Measures

摘要

The paper identifies U.S. counties where farming remains a major part of theeconomic base. Both farm employment and farm income are used to measure a county's reliance on farming. Counties that rely on farming are located principally in the Plains and western Corn Belt regions. Since roughly two-thirds of the counties defined as farm reliant using one indicator are so defined using the other indicator, there is a large area of overlap and similarity between the two groups. Although employment and income indicators define somewhat different groups of counties as farm reliant, both identify counties where overall job growth has lagged, and consequently, where there is a need for economic diversification if population levels are to be sustained.