What are the economic costs to remaining isolated from a nation that is growing more diverse?

Rural men and women are more likely to be pulling the night shift than are urban workers. So finds a new study from the Carsey Institute, at University of New Hampshire.

Sociologist Rogelio Saenz studied when workers, metro and non-metro, arrived at the job. He found that rural people were over-represented in non-traditional shifts; a higher ratio of rural workers clocked in after noon and before 6 a.m.

Saenz further found that white workers were proportionally most likely to be employed during the “traditional” work hours, whereas “those who tend to be more marginally tied to the labor force (persons of color, the foreign-born, those with English-speaking limitations, and the poor) tend to be more likely to work during the early morning, afternoon, and evening hours."

Saenz notes that people on second and third shifts may be deprived of “normal” social opportunities – like school activities and access to health care and day care.

There is also mounting evidence that night-shift workers have a greater incidence of cancer and other illnesses.

Wondering if the places that "still look like Indiana" can survive.

<p><p>Farmers who have invested in land rather than stocks, bonds or condos in Miami have &nbsp;seen their prospects for a secure retirement soar, according to a <a href=" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104864768">report by Howard Berkes</a> on National Public Radio. As commodity prices have risen (at least until recently), so have farmland prices. And so farmers who have invested in land are doing well. "The price appreciation since 1998 has been very good," according to economist Ernie Goss. "We're talking about 15 percent a year [in some states]. And the rest of us, those who have invested in stock &hellip; we're seeing drops of 30 percent to 50 percent."</p><p>Meanwhile, in another part of the rural economy, retirement security is falling away. <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104904906">Berkes finds</a> that the collapse of rural manufacturing has decimated some rural communities. (See the Yonder stories on rural manufacturing and unemployment <a href="http://www.dailyyonder.com/rural-counties-losing-jobs-faster-cities/2009/03/30/2029 ">here</a> and <a href="http://www.dailyyonder.com/untangling-rural-unemployment-rates/2009/04/20/2068">here</a>.) &nbsp;"Small manufacturers have really been hit hard by this economic downturn," Ernie Gross told Berkes. "They have done some outsourcing [and] moved to other countries. That's really affecting rural areas."&nbsp;</p><p>For fun, Berkes reviews the history of Vice-Grips, a product of rural ingenuity. Vice-Grips were invented in a blacksmith shop in DeWitt, Nebraska, and were made there until 2008, when manufacturing of the tool was moved to China. See Berkes' history of this ubiquitous tool (used by surgeons and astronauts) on the left-hand side of <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104904906 ">this page</a>. Vice-Grips were invented in the shop pictured above.</p></p>