Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
- Over half of rural workers want to start a business (more than in urban areas) but face serious access gaps.
- 64% of rural Gen Z feel held back by where they live, and many lack the tools needed to reach career goals.
- 86% of rural workers say employer-school partnerships are key to unlocking future job opportunities.
America’s entrepreneurial spirit has been a hallmark of the recent wave of enthusiasm for start-ups and small businesses built on new technologies that could transform any idea into the next major innovation of our generation.Â
But while many associate this fast-moving and innovative approach with big cities and Silicon Valley, rural Americans have prided themselves on their ability to build businesses into success stories.Â
In fact, they’re especially keen on being the ones to lead the charge.Â
A majority of rural workers (51%) want to own their own business in the future, significantly more than their nonrural peers (41%), according to the University of Phoenix’s recent G.R.O.W. Generating Rural Opportunities in the Workforce™ report on workers in rural and nonrural areas. This includes half or more of younger generations such as Gen Z (53%), Millennials (56%) and Gen X (50%).
Innovation has long been embedded in rural America, where agriculture, manufacturing and other industries have thrived. As the knowledge economy expands, companies all over America should be able to tap into rural communities, where there is a wellspring of ability and talent — especially as the need for innovation continues to grow in the face of advancing technology and competition overseas.Â
Now more than ever, businesses of every stripe should be looking to rural America or connecting with the workers who live there to take advantage of both their abilities and their entrepreneurial spirit.
However, despite technology that should connect these communities to the opportunities that tech can provide, many rural communities cannot access them. This could spell disaster as rural workers are forced to move to pursue career opportunities elsewhere.
Overcoming the barriers rural workers face in order to participate in a growing American economy, requires systemic change.Â
Those changes can benefit not just rural communities by strengthening their economic opportunities, but also the businesses and industries in need of the strengths and skills of rural Americans — people who could fuel the next generation of American innovation while also increasing our competitiveness on the global stage.
Workforce Shifts Leaving Rural Workers Behind
The recent rise in remote work opportunities has radically changed how Americans see their work opportunities. Not only has there been a massive 67% increase in jobseekers’ desire to work remotely since 2022, 40% of workers would even work for a lower salary if their employer offered more flexible arrangements.Â
On the other side of the coin, if the push to return to the office continues to grow, then rural areas have an opportunity to use the tech available to turn their communities into hubs of commerce and innovation.Â
In other words, either trend can be capitalized upon to transform rural work opportunities, and especially allow businesses and workers alike to thrive either remotely or in-person.
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These trends should allow rural workers, who could work either remotely or in person, to join the knowledge economy and provide their talents to businesses that previously relied on workers in metropolitan areas.Â
But so far, these shifts have not benefited rural workers, in large part due to infrastructure and cost challenges that prevent these communities from accessing high-speed internet. Even when bringing broadband to rural areas is possible, the process is challenging. Because of this, the rise in remote work that should be a particular boon to rural workers has instead left them further disconnected from the growing knowledge economy.
As a result, nearly half of rural workers (49%) feel held back in their careers because of where they live (compared to just 30% of nonrural workers) — a disparity driven by rural Gen Z and Millennial respondents (64% and 54%).Â
These same younger generations of rural workers are less likely to feel satisfied in their jobs (67% of Gen Z and 62% of Millennials, compared to 78% of Gen X and 84% of Boomers).Â
Why do these workers feel they need to come to the opportunities when there is more than enough reason for the opportunities to come to them?
Troublingly, it’s a lack of resources that seems to be driving this outlook: Just 56% of rural workers are happy with the tools and resources they have for achieving their career goals, significantly less than their nonrural peers (73%).Â
If rural communities want to gain from shifts in workforce trends. Iif businesses want to benefit from the untapped abilities of rural workers, something must be done to close this gap.
Reconnect, Reskill, Renew
Education has long been a key path for capitalizing on new economic opportunities, with higher education being something that 76% of rural and nonrural Americans alike agree to be worthwhile.Â
But once again, while educational institutions should be a lifeline for rural Americans, too many struggle with geography, with an estimated 41 million Americans living more than 30 minutes’ drive away from the nearest college or university: that’s 12% of the country’s population facing this obstacle to access.Â
Communities and businesses need to collaborate in building support networks (both infrastructural and social) that can benefit rural employees and employers alike. And while 56% of rural workers are interested in the flexibility of online resources such as apps, portals, or websites that allow them to learn at their own pace, infrastructure challenges once again throw up obstacles.Â
Rural workers rank the quality of their area’s education technology (36%) or internet (32%) as merely fair or even poor.
This is where businesses and educational institutions need to listen to what rural workers are saying could help them in their career journeys; here, rural workers are emphatic. An overwhelming 86% of rural workers agree that more partnerships between employers and educational institutions are needed to create employment opportunities for students.
It will take more than a village to reconnect rural communities with the opportunities they deserve. Businesses and educational institutions will need to work together to help rural communities access infrastructure necessary to participate in the future economy. They will need to implement solutions that connect rural workers with job opportunities where they can begin earning and adding value; and they will need to constantly reskill and upskill these populations when trends inevitably shift again.Â
But the good news is that once these efforts are in place, they can help prepare for that next shift — both by providing rural workers with the infrastructure and support they need, as well as by providing businesses the insights and abilities of rural Americans who have so much to offer the knowledge economy.Â
Most importantly, tapping into the innovative spirit of rural Americans, and indeed workers everywhere in the country, will more than make up for the initial effort.Â
The upfront cost may be daunting, and the time may be urgent, but these investments in rural workers will pay dividends for generations to come, just as America continues to benefit from the hard work of rural Americans in the past, present, and future.
