USDA: Rural America Is Back in Business

President Obama took office during one of the worst economic recessions in our history. Challenges in the housing market had led to vast economic hardship and uncertainty for American families and communities across the country. During this time, widespread job losses coupled with an increasing shift to a technologically focused economy left many rural communities reeling. As a result, many families in rural America were faced with the difficult decision of migrating from the communities they called home in search of a brighter future, or waiting patiently for change to come.
By the media headlines we’ve seen, you could easily think rural America is a thing of the past. “The Graying of Rural America” … “Can Rural America Be Saved” … “Rural America Is Falling Behind” … The truth is, the facts reflect something very different: A rural America on the road to recovery and growth.
Nearly eight years later, rural America has made a remarkable comeback. After years of stagnation following the harsh economic climate that took hold during the Great Recession, we’re beginning to see positive trends in major indicators of economic recovery and we need to recognize it, celebrate it and make sure that progress continues.
For the first time since the start of the Recession, rural populations have stabilized.
The total number of people living in rural counties remained essentially unchanged between July 2014 and July 2015, following several years of rural net migration that began with the housing-market crisis. This improvement in population change coincides with rural economic recovery and, if current trends continue, we will begin to see gradual population growth in rural and small-town America in the coming years.
The rural unemployment rate dropped below 6 percent for the first time since 2007.
After reaching nearly 10 percent in 2010, rural unemployment has fallen to under 6 percent in 2015. Rural counties added over 125,000 jobs in both 2014 and 2015, after job losses averaging 200,000 per year during 2008–2013.
From 2012–2014, rural child poverty fell by 3 percentage points.
Rural child poverty, which had been trending upward from 2003 to 2012, has since begun a slow but steady decline. From 2012 to 2014, average incomes for families with children climbed 6 percent, nearly regaining their 2003 levels in rural areas. This income growth reduced child poverty considerably and demonstrates a very strong growth trend.
Two million fewer people live in a state of food insecurity today compared with a recession peak in 2011.
Food security for households with children, and households overall, is the strongest it’s been since before the Recession and we hope to have more good news to support this later in the month. That means more American families have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food on a daily basis. SNAP participation is also down by 4 million people since it peaked in FY 2013.
These numbers still echo some lingering economic impact left in the wake of a deep recession, but since those early days, we’ve seen important trend lines shift to demonstrate positive change, and the austere outlook that once faced rural America shows growing signs of promise.---read more of the USDA report
https://medium.com/usda-results/results-ch7-bac6adea0994#.db90k9848

Editorial note: Sounds to me like a lot of propagandist drivel if you ask me. If we who live in rural communities since Obama took office, why is it more people are now on food stamps, and more homeless folks around?

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