Upgrading Workers' Skills Not Sufficient to Jump-Start Rural Economy

Enhanced job skills benefit rural individuals, but a high-quality rural labor force by itself will not guarantee rural development. Data from the past two decades show a decreasing rate of growth in demand by employers for quantifiable skills (like level of education). Although policymakers predict an increasingly skilled and service-oriented workforce in the 1990's, a rural development strategy based solely on upgrading workforce skills may still miss the point.