Rural Labor Market

Recent population gains in nonmetropolitan areas may presage a reversal of the historical
exodus of people and jobs from rural America. After remaining at a level of about 53 million
qpersons for over half a century (1920-70), popula-tion growth in rural counties between 1970
and 1975 has increased both the number and percent-age of the total population living in rural
America. Between 1970 and 1975, the net gain of three million persons in nonmetro counties has
increased the rural share of the population by over one percent, the first share increase since
1790, when nearly 95 percent of all Americans lived in rural areas. Aggregate rural-urban
population shifts obscure intrasectoral changes. Within the rural sector, population gains have
been concentrated among non-farm residents. The farm population, after declining from 30
million persons in 1940, has remained relatively constant at nine million. By 1970, nearly 22
percent of the domestic population had rural, non- farm residences, and these rural nonfarm
persons accounted for 82 percent of all persons living in Rural America. Within both the rural
farm and non-farm populations, diversity rather than uniformity prevails, with some geographic
areas still losing population as other rural areas expand. Recent population trends highlight the
importance of the rural non-farm sector for understanding conditions affecting economic welfare
in nonmetropolitan America. Rural America includes those living in places of 2,500 or less. Even
though overeight in ten rural persons have nonfarm residences, remarkably few studies of rural
labor markets exist.1 Philip Martin is an assistant professor of agricultural economics, University of
California, Davis.

Abstract
Participation in rural non-farm activities is one of the livelihood strategies among poor
rural households in many developing countries. One component of non-farm activities
accessible to the very poor is wage labor because it does not require any
complementary physical capital. A household's ability to participate in the rural labor
market depends on the characteristics of the household itself and the local labor
markets conditions. This study examines the factors that determine the number of
households participating in a particular rural local labor market in rural areas of
Tanzania. The study finds that education level, availability of land, and access to
economic centers and credit are the most important factors in determining the number
of households that participate in a particular rural local labor market.

Rural Land Markets

In poor countries land plays a special role in the daily livelihood and the general social
structure of the vast majority of people. But, compared with the massive
in uence of land distribution on economic and social

activities, the extent of actual transactions in the land market is relatively low.

The market is a trickle compared with the weighty stock.

The market is more active in land-lease than in the buying and selling of land.

The history of land rights is complex and context-speci-

c in most parts of the world.

ñ But there may be some general pattern decipherable in the evolution of land rights.

With demographic changes (say, rising population pressure on arable land) or tech-

nological and commercial advances increasing the productivity and value of land,

ñ there is a tendency to move from the earlier communal patterns of landholding to

more well-de-

ned private property rights on land.