CHANGING LINKAGES BETWEEN WORK AND POVERTY IN RURAL AMERICA

The changing relationship between work and poverty in non-metropolitan (nonmetro) America is documented using data from the 1980 and 1990 Ma rch supplements of the Current Population Survey. Specifically, this p aper assesses changing differentials in the proportion of poor people who are working; documents the rapid rise in poverty among nonmetro an d metropolitan (metro) workers during the 1979-1989 period, especially among young adults and females; and provides evidence of growing ineq uality between metro and nonmetro workers, a pattern that cannot be ex plained by differences in work attachment, human capital, or job chara cteristics. The results imply that poverty is a persistent if not incr easingly harsh reality for workers in rural America.