Do Rural Areas Offer An Alternative To Offshoring?

"Offshoring – the relocation of jobs overseas – deeply affects our communities. For some time firms have relocated manufacturing activities and services to far-flung places like India or China. Jobs in established industries are lost, and affected regions, often rural in character, struggle to restructure their economies. Other regions, frequently more urban, see concentrations of jobs develop that far outstrip their available labor supply."

But a new report from Virginia Tech called "Farmshoring in Virginia" finds firms not just looking overseas, but to low-cost communities in rural areas in the United States. The study encourages economic development agencies to create policies that support such investment in rural communities.

"Opportunities in domestic outsourcing or farmshoring are driven by needs like lower costs, data security, skilled and stable labor forces, and geographic constraints...Knowledge-based occupations and industries have the most farmshoring potential. These include activities like computer systems design, data processing and computer programming, management, scientific and consulting services, legal services, accounting and other business process services, and industries such as aerospace, information technology, electronics manufacturing, health care information, and biotechnology/pharmaceuticals. "