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HAMILTON, Ohio—Jobs at the paper mills and safe manufacturers on this stretch of the Great Miami River mostly dried up by the early 2000s, leaving behind closed factories and an abandoned downtown.
Today, a spruced-up waterfront, loft apartments and help-wanted signs give the appearance of economic renewal. All that’s missing are workers—and that has prompted a novel experiment.
Relocate to Hamilton and the city promises $5,000 to help pay student loans. Pack up for Grant County, Ind., and claim $5,000 toward buying a home. Settle in North Platte, Neb., and the chamber of commerce will hold a ceremony in your honor to present an even bigger check.
The idea has spread where a strong economy, an aging population and an exodus of younger workers have triggered severe labor shortages—often places with very low unemployment rates and higher-than-average wage growth. That’s why small towns across America, instead of offering incentives to employers such as Amazon.com are giving incentives to workers—one by one.
Mike Allgrunn, an economist at the University of South Dakota, calls the financial incentives “a modern-day Homestead Act,” referring to the 1862 law offering public land to settlers willing to move West. A similar deal now stands in Marne, Iowa, where free parcels are available to people who move there.
Small business ranks labor shortages as the biggest concern for the first time since 2000, the National Federation of Independent Business found.
Having too few workers is a deep threat to communities. If employers can’t fill jobs, they may leave, pushing towns into a downward economic spiral.
“Low unemployment rates, everyone thinks of that as a good thing and it is, but there’s a downside,” Mr. Allgrunn said. “Eventually you run out of people to do the work.”
My experience with these rural jobs is the cost of living is indeed lower but the pay is ridiculously lower so you are getting a major decline in quality of life. Also if your profession is at all specialized, there may be only one employer in town that would hire you.
I tried living in a fairly isolated rural town for my first job out of college since they were the first company to offer me direct employment with benefits and not temp crap with crap pay. 9 months later I was laid off and I high tailed it out of there as there was nothing else for me there even though I actually enjoyed living there. Fortunately my lease was up and I was able to do that.
North Platte is extremely isolated in western Nebraska. It looks to be a couple of hours away from Lincoln. It's four hours to Denver through the middle of nowhere. The population has basically been stagnant since 1980.
The problem with these horribly isolated places is that if something goes wrong with the job you moved there for, you're most certainly moving again. North Platte is a town of about 25,000, and is a railroad town. Railroads are a volatile industry. This place could easily be singing the blues come the next downturn.
If you move to a place like that, how difficult would it be to sell a house if something happened? It could take months and months to sell. You might not get anywhere near what you have into it if you sell in a downturn.
That's not even counting the difficulty of fitting into a small town in a rural area where family ties go back for generations and where there is practically no new blood.
I'd need a much, much higher hourly rate, working by the hour, with some sort of "quick release" housing arrangement in case something bad happens.
Love the isolation of rural America. If it was the 1950s again and the economy was truly booming and no outsourcing or insourcing going on (not talking about what the corporate controlled media will have you believe) id move in a second. But nowadays? Nahh. You’ll last a year then be laid off. Forget about being able to sell your house after you bought it
Small towns are dying. That's not going to change. If you are single, you can forget about dating. If you are working, you better plan on your one employer never firing you. If you are young, you can forget about having an interesting social life. If you want to travel, good luck saving extra cash on a lower wage to make up for traveling to more expensive areas (in contrast to the reverse, having a higher wage in a more expensive area and traveling to equal or cheaper areas).
I would never take a job in a small town. The only thing that would make me consider it is a contract of guarantee for employment/wages for an X number of years either funded by the employer or by the local government. At least in big cities I'd have other places to look if my employer decided to belly up. What if I bought a home and then lost my job in a rural area, what am I supposed to do?
My experience with these rural jobs is the cost of living is indeed lower but the pay is ridiculously lower so you are getting a major decline in quality of life.
OK, so don't go there. But maybe it'll work for someone else?
I used to live in a small town in eastern Utah and loved it. I really miss the small town feel and access to outdoor activities within a short drive. The only downside was you either work in healthcare or the oilfield. I worked in the latter and didn't enjoy the erratic days/hours, otherwise I would have stayed there.
I'm sure there's candidates for employment in those small towns who were turned down for a job due to a prison record or they didn't pass the drug test. That can happen all over the country, and then they cry they can't find qualified, I repeat qualified, applicants.
Small towns are dying. That's not going to change. If you are single, you can forget about dating. If you are working, you better plan on your one employer never firing you. If you are young, you can forget about having an interesting social life.
I agree with this completely. There is an underestimation about the relationship between work and life. Work is a component in life. In my last relocation, I relocated to a place that I thought represented the best balance between what I wanted to achieve in my career, and what I want to achieve in terms of dating first and foremost, and secondarily having friends.
Employment tenures are so short these days. If you get 5 years out of one company, you've done really well. Even 2-3 years is an accomplishment.
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