Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NC100 meeting in Chicago focused on refining the rationale for the study focus, identifying existing databases to support the work, determining the study design, and identifying key variables. The committee also worked on identifying possible funding sources and discussing strategies for a successful NRI proposal. The committee will work on the action plan and proposals for funding using a web-based work space. Initial mapping of the descriptive results will provide initial results in July. This information will be used to identify locations for case studies of communities that are working their way out of poverty successfully and those that are falling into further decline. A subcommittee will work on developing the protocol for the survey and case study.

Proposed accomplishments from proposal (2005):

1) Research design based on the conference to further specify the cultural perceptions of poverty and its alleviation.

Status: The research design is complete and committee members assigned to various aspects of the research.

Research objectives:
• 1. Determine the model of the changes in low wage employment growth in rural areas by looking at the intersection of household, employer, labor force, and labor market. Are these changes indications of significant restructuring or are jobs disappearing?
• 2. Determine the degree to which rural labor markets in each state deviate from the predictive model.
• 3. Identify in each state rural labor markets that have been most successful in increasing good jobs (non-low wage work) and those who have been least in increasing good jobs a stratified.
• 4. Compare the development strategies and practices of employers offering high wage jobs with benefits and those offering low wage jobs with out benefit in each labor market.
• 5. Determine what actions at the community level are related to the creation of good jobs and the creation of low wage, temporary, and part time work.

Specific hypotheses to be tested:
• a. Proportion of and change in working poor in labor markets is a function agricultural dependency, low educational levels, and distance from urban centers (Beale code).
• b. Labor markets with a higher dependence on import sensitive industries are more likely to increase in proportion of working poor.
• c. Labor markets with high concentrations of women and immigrants would be more likely to have high proportions of working book.
• d. Labor markets with high numbers of immigrants will have higher levels of entrepreneurship, as measured in number of small businesses.
• e. Communities clusters that counties that invest in big box stores are have more low wage jobs and higher rates of SSI.
• f. Community action can have an impact on improving the situation of the working poor.

Research Methodologies:
• 1. Labor market and county level will be compiled in an SPSS file from a variety of data sources will be compiled (Iowa, South Dakota, Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin).
• 2. Using multiple regression and hierarchical modeling, a predictive model of % working poor and change in working poor will be developed (Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin).
• 3. High low wage work rural communities and low low wage work communities in each North Central state will be identified using the models developed (Iowa, Michigan, Purdue).
• 4. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with employers in those communities. That data will be coded using N-Vivo and SPSS (All states. Wisconsin, Purdue, North Carolina and Michigan will take the lead in framing the interview schedule).
• 5. Community case studies to determine the degree of community agency and its impact on low wage work will be carried out in the identified (All states: Michigan and Minnesota will take the lead in determining the specific data gathering instruments to be used in each community).

2) Analysis of rural labor markets, rural labor force, and levels of poverty.

• 1. Analysis of changes in rural labor markets, rural labor force, and presence of working poor.
  • Status: Existing databases have been combined into to data sets - labor markets and counties and individual characteristics of rural labor markets and the rural labor force have been correlated with the percent working poor. Counties at risk of outsourcing and with high levels of inequality have been identified and zero-order correlations calculated.
• 2. Conduct employer interviews.
  • Status: A basic questionnaire has been developed in Wisconsin and will be discussed electronically by the group in the fall.
• 3. Community case studies to determine the intersection of structure and agency.
  • Status: The committee is discussing a community capitals approach.
• 4. A grant-writing team has been formed (Iowa, Michigan).