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April 5, 2018DES MOINES, Iowa |  By: INS

Rural areas must embrace high tech to compete

Rural states that want to compete with more urban areas need to attract millennial workers who are well-educated and bring technical skills to the employment mix, according to one expert. Since the recession a decade ago, larger metropolitan areas have, for the most part, seen more economic and job growth than small towns or rural areas. Mark Muro with the Brookings Institute says if rural communities want to compete with big cities, they need to embrace high tech faster.

House File 2458 recommends that 70 percent of workers in the state of Iowa have education or training beyond high school by 2025. The legislation also aims to strengthen the state's workforce by establishing summer post-secondary courses for high school students that are aligned with high-demand careers.

Muro says the digital era, with its emphasis on automation and globalization, currently favors the biggest, densest cities over rural areas. But he's also convinced that eventually, that could change – as people consider the cost of living and quality of life when they decide where to live and work.

Muro notes that the rural-urban divide began as early as 1920, when the number of Americans who lived in cities overtook those who lived in the countryside.