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Welcome to the Exurban Recession
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Daily Yonder/BLS This map shows the percentage change in employment in each rural and exurban county from June 2008 to June 2009. Brown and red counties lost jobs at rates above the national average. Green counties were better than the national average. Click here for a larger version of the map. Urban counties are in white.
This has become the exurban recession.
The loss of jobs has been greater in the formerly fast-growing exurbs — the not quite urban, not fully rural counties on the edges of cities — than in either rural America or the nation’s metros. According to June employment figures compiled by the Daily Yonder, exurban counties lost a higher percentage of their jobs in the previous 12 months than did either urban or rural counties.
"Things are really starting to shift and change," said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution. "The communities that are seeing their unemployed populations growing fastest are the exurbs and the suburbs." Brookings described the economic downturn as a “crabgrass recession” to Tennessee newspaper reporter Jennifer Brooks.
No exurban county reported gains in employment since June 2008.
The map above shows the change in the number of jobs between June 2008 and June 2009 in rural and exurban counties. (Metropolitan counties are in white.) Counties that lost jobs over those 12 months at rates higher than the national average are in brown and red. Red counties are those that lost more than 10 percent of their jobs between June 2008 and June 2009. There are 66 counties with these steep declines in jobs.
Only twelve counties reported job gains of more than 10 percent since June of 2008. Six of those job-producing counties are in Texas: Loving, Wheeler, Sutton, Hemphill, Reagan and Motley. Three were in Kansas: Pottawatomie, Geary and Riley. Telfair County in Georgia and Pocahontas County in Iowa were among the dozen. Wasco County, Oregon, led the list, showing a 16% increase in jobs from June 2008 to June 2009.
Below is a list of the 50 rural counties that had the largest percentage declines in employed people since June 2008. To download the full excel file of all rural counties, click here. 
Daily Yonder/BLS These are the 50 counties with the largest percentage declines in jobs since June 2008. The chart shows the number of employed and unemployed in each county in June 2009 and the change in the number employed over the previous year.
The Brookings Report, The Landscape of Recession, is concerned only with the nation's metro areas. The report finds, however, that “Compared to the recession at the turn of the decade, suburbs appear to be bearing more of the unemployment increase this time around.”
If the suburbs were hurting more than the cities, Brookings found that “Exurbs and emerging suburbs exhibit a higher unemployment rate than other types of suburbs.” On average, the higher the population density of the suburban county, the fewer jobs it lost.
Brookings speculates that the declines in the housing market — particularly in the West — may be a reason why job declines have been greater in exurban counties. Moreover, Brookings finds that food stamp enrollments in these counties is “lagging,” a fact that points to a “possible gap in safety net access.”
This is the trend the Yonder finds in exurban counties using June 2009 employment figures. Below are the 50 exurban counties that lost the largest percentage of their jobs between June 2008 and June 2009: 
Daily Yonder/BLS These are the 50 counties with the largest percentage decline in jobs since June 2008. The chart shows the number of employed and unemployed in each county in June 2009 and the change in the number employed over the last year.
The Associated Press uses a three-part index to measure economic stress. The news organization combines unemployment figures, foreclosures and bankruptcies to produce a measure of financial strain.
The AP’s economic stress measure held steady in the last month. The states with the largest economic declines since last year were Nevada, Oregon and Michigan. To see the AP’s economic stress map, click here.
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Pine County, Minn. is Exurban
"No exurban county reported gains in employment since June 2008."
This statement is inaccurate as Pine County, Minn. is exurban and it showed job growth, according to your data.
Pine County
Thanks for checking, Pinecitykid. But Pine County is rural, according to us (and the Census Bureau), not exurban.
If you downloaded the file -- and we hope you did -- that contained only rural counties. We didn't post the exurban counties for download.
Full county not exurban, but 24% is, including all of Pine City
Published: November 17, 2006, STAR TRIBUNE
Edition: METRO
Section: NEWS
Page#: 1A
Exurbanites abound in our metro area
The region around the Twin Cities ranks among the nation's highest in far-flung commuters.
By David Peterson, Staff Writer
Laurie Ziegler commutes from a spot so far west of Minneapolis that on her way home she can lose the signal from AM radio. So far west that the thermometer on her dashboard can register a drop of 10 degrees. So far west that "the last tank of gas I charged on my debit card hasn't cleared my bank by the time I am filling up again."
When she reaches her 8 acres in Wright County, however, she has reached a place where her six horses have plenty of room to roam.
"When I arrive at my little hobby farm on the quiet gravel road," she said, "I realize that this is my own little bed-and-breakfast. And I get to stay at it every night. I wouldn't trade it for anything."
She is like thousands of other people who work in the city but value the country.
Ziegler is part of a movement that has resulted in the Twin Cities area becoming, by some forms of reckoning, one of the nation's top metro areas for exurban living.
A team of experts has devised a sophisticated new measure of what really constitutes the "exurbs" - places beyond the main contiguous suburban ring but still firmly tethered to city jobs. And the Twin Cities area emerged by some key measures as among the leading, if not the No. 1, metro area in the nation in the number of exurban residents.
Why us?
Alan Berube, research director for the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution in Washington and lead author of the study called "Finding Exurbia," said two traits stand out to him in Minnesota:
- Wealth is driving up housing prices and pushing middle-class people ever farther outward. "Wealthy, closer-in suburbs are stymying development," Berube said, "so middle-class housing is skipping to the next ring out."
- Natural beauty within striking distance of high-paying jobs is luring people outward.
Both explanations make sense to many exurbanites in Minnesota. Sometimes both apply to the same person.
"We have 3 acres out in the country, a home about four years old and a home with a tax value of $150,000," said Christine Robertson, who commutes from Milltown, Wis., north of St Croix Falls. "If we were within 15 miles of downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis, the exact same house on 3 acres would be worth $500,000, maybe more, and I wouldn't be able to afford to even buy it, let alone enjoy the large yard, friendly-yet-far-away neighbors, quiet nights, small school and a great sense of security and community."
The study disputes one common stereotype about the exurbs: that they are teeming with "enormous cookie-cutter McMansions." Researchers found that when they sorted out true exurbs - neighborhoods with a combination of low density, fast growth and strong commuting ties - they turned out not to have any more high-priced houses than suburbs closer in.
The Twin Cities area ranks particularly high nationally by two measures of exurbanness:
- The overall number of people, and the recent growth in the number who live in counties researchers class as exurban. The figure for net growth from 2000 to 2005 is 113,000, third highest behind Washington, D.C., and Orlando. But those metro areas have far more growth, period. So the share of all metro growth in the Twin Cities that is exurban is far higher than that of either one: 68 percent.
- The number of counties qualifying as exurban. The Twin Cities area ties for fifth place, with 10, most of them in the woodsier north and east.
This area slips farther down the list, however, when the comparison is done another way. This approach slices counties into smaller areas, so that semirural parts of Scott or Carver counties, for instance, are classed as exurbia, while closer-in and more suburban cities such as Chanhassen or Shakopee are omitted. Done that way, the Twin Cities area ranks 21st among 88 major metro areas, but still in the top quarter.
People living in cities such as Savage are not all that far from major job centers such as Bloomington and Eden Prairie. "One thing I do get sick of is people's reaction when I say that I live in Savage," said Jill Hawkins, who lives in a townhouse about three blocks from a Target store. "They think it is a suburb of Mankato. It is ridiculous."
Compared with other cities across the country, the research team emphasizes, one reason areas like the Twin Cities stretch into the countryside is that no mountains or oceans intervene. And there's plenty of water. "You don't find distant exurbs in Arizona," Berube said, "because 50 miles from Phoenix it's you and some cactus. It's unlivable."
Twin Cities exurbanites take that Minnesota open space for granted, and emphasize the rewards of the long drive. Rick Peterson, commuting from Big Lake Township, speaks of "the magic dance of the northern lights from your own back yard." Lisa Bienfang, going home to Zimmerman, sees "wild turkeys eating corn from our feeders. I can even hear the coyotes howling at night."
The Brookings team gingerly refers to exurban development patterns as "suboptimal," meaning that they lead to vast amounts of auto pollution. In the Twin Cities, though, exurban growth has helped fuel momentum for more transit options. And many exurbanites stress that they hop on transit now and would do more of it if more were available.
"I drive to Woodbury, then ride the bus into downtown," said Vanessa Bjork, who commutes from River Falls, Wis., to downtown Minneapolis.
Ziegler, however, coming in from Montrose, drives around town for her job enough - she sells ads for Minnesota Monthly magazine - that she needs a car. So she's grateful for the MnPass "Lexus lane" on I-394 that allows her to zoom past lines of cars on the last stretch of her 36-mile odyssey.
David Peterson - 612-673-4440.
WHAT IS AN EXURB?
An exurban area is a fast-growing, low-density zone between suburban subdivisions and completely rural areas.
133,000: The five-year figure for growth in Twin Cities exurban areas
10 counties: Areas in the Twin Cities region considered exurban, ranking fifth
EXURBAN HOTSPOTS
US metro areas with largest numeric growth in counties
classed as 'exurban.'
POPULATION CHANGE, 2000-2005
Exurbs Metro % Exurbs
1. Washington, D.C. 140,000 409,000 34
2. Orlando 122,000 277,000 44
3. Twin Cities 113,000 166,000 68
4. Atlanta 109,000 650,000 17
5. Houston 92,000 539,000 17
Source: Brookings Institution
TOP EXURBAN STATES
Factors here include spillover from the D.C area (Maryland,
Virginia), and spillover from Boston (New Hampshire)
Percent exurbanites
1. South Carolina 9.5
2. Oklahoma 8.9
3. Tennessee 7.7
4. Maryland 7.5
5. Wisconsin 7
6. New Hampshire 6.8
7. Missouri 6.3
8. Minnesota 6.2
9. Texas 6
10. Virginia 5.9
Source: Brookings Institution
How the 'exurban' counties stack up
A new study of counties classed as 'exurban' across the country - the result of a formula that combines low density, fast growth, and strong commuting ties - compares each metro's exurban counties with one another on a range of factors. Here are a few of them for outlying Twin Cities counties.
Highest and lowest figures for each category are shown
"SUPERCOMMUTES"
Pine and Isanti counties tie for the most megacommutes, one hour or more each way. Scott County, close to suburban job centers, has the fewest.
Pine County: 17.9%
Scott County: 3.2%
'EXURBAN' SHARE OF RESIDENTS
Almost 90 percent of Chisago's residents are in areas the formula considers 'exurban,' far more than in Pine.
Chisago County: 87.5%
Pine County: 24%
GROWTH RATE
Percent change in estimated population, 2000 to 2005, is highest by far in Scott and lowest (6-7 percent) in Minnesota's Pine and Wisconsin's Pierce and Polk.
Scott County: 31.5
Pierce County, Wis.: 6%
INCOME
Closest-in counties draw the most affluent: median adjusted gross income in 2003 is highest for Carver and Scott and lowest for Pine.
Scott County: $46,218
Pine County: $26,046
'EXURBAN' NUMBERS
In sheer numbers of exurbanites, Wright County leads by far (70,000), thanks in part to a pocket of communities along I-94 that are closer to the inner-metro than parts of some suburban counties.
Wright County: 79,595
Pine County: 6,360
WEALTH OF NEW HOME BUYERS
Average household income for fairly recent home buyers (1995-2000), is highest by far for Carver, close to southwest metro corporate campuses, and lowest in Pine.
Carver County: $103,696
Pine County: $52,122
Source: Brookings Institution
Exurbs.....
Thanks for the article, PCK. But we'll stick with the Census definition, not Brookings' concoction. Go ask Brookings how they rate ALL U.S. counties. They aren't really interested in any piece of real estate outside the metros. The article above comes from the Brookings "metropolitan" division -- a group that has shown a huge disinterest in rural America in recent years.
Besides, we aren't splitting counties, as Brookings has done here. We are keeping counties whole because that's the only way to measure changes in places over time.
But, if you want to call your county exurban (defying the Census definition), that's okay by us. And it means that exactly one exurban county gained jobs over the last year!!!