Ag economists are warning the struggles right now in the ag industry are spreading to other parts of the rural economy.
“On the hiring side on rural Main Street, it’s not as tough as you might think out there, and that’s outside of agriculture. That would be the businesses on Main Street, whether we’re talking about leisure and hospitality, dry cleaners, and other businesses out there. Optimism is not there right now. It’s still very weak. Again, these indices range between zero and 100, and the October Confidence Index was at almost 30, 29.6, actually,” said Dr. Ernie Gross.
Despite the rural struggles, just this week, farmer sentiment saw a rebound. Purdue’s Ag Economy Barometer shows the index rose nearly 30 points from last month when sentiment hit new lows.
