Unemployment, Need for Emergency Assistance Hitting Exurban Counties Harder then Urban Davidson

According to Saturday's Tennessean:

In a new report this week, Brookings researchers charted the growing gap between the urban and suburban recession in Middle Tennessee. The unemployment rate is higher outside the Davidson County limits than inside. Suburban and rural residents are registering for emergency food assistance at twice the rate as their urban neighbors,

"Things are really starting to shift and change," said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research analyst at Brookings. "The communities that are seeing their unemployed populations growing fastest are the exurbs (rural counties where fewer than a quarter of the population lives in cities) and the suburbs."

Nashville, its work force cushioned slightly by its base of government, health-care, education and service jobs, is actually faring a bit better than the rest of the country.

The counties that ring Davidson are faring worse. Outside the cities, Kneebone said, jobs are scarcer and many tend to be in industries decimated by the downturn, like construction and factory jobs.