Labor market measures include:
- Employment,
- Employment-to-population ratio,
- Unemployment,
- Labor force participation,
- Geography of employment growth, and
- Industrial composition of employment
Nonmetro Employment is Growing but Has Not Fully Recovered From Great Recession
The number of employed nonmetro residents (people employed in full- and part-time wage and salary jobs, as well as the self-employed) peaked in the first quarter of 2007 and had begun to fall prior to the official onset of the recession in December 2007. By the end of 2009, nonmetro employment had fallen by more than 6 percent relative to its peak. Metro employment, by contrast, grew during 2007 and peaked in the first quarter of 2008. Metro employment then fell for the next 2 years, and by the end of 2009 was 5 percent below its peak. Estimated employment losses as a proportion of their peak values were thus somewhat larger in nonmetro than metro areas, and began a year earlier.
