The Rural Capital Area economy employs almost 414,000 workers. Economic growth from 2015-2025 brought about 141,000 net new jobs spread across a wide range of occupations.

The occupation group with the largest growth was Management occupations which added 24,000 new jobs in the region. This was followed by Transportation and Material Moving occupations and Food Preparation and Serving Related occupations which added 17,000 and 16,000 jobs respectively.

From 2015 to 2025, the unemployment rate in the Rural Capital Area has stayed below national levels and followed the national trends. The unemployment rate hit its lowest point in 2019 at 2.9%, its lowest point since 2000. The region’s unemployment rate then peaked at 6% in 2020 due to the pandemic but has since returned to pre-pandemic levels and was 3.6% in 2025.

In addition to the existing educated workforce, employers find a large workforce pipeline from numerous colleges and universities throughout the region. The number of students graduating from these institutions has been slowly growing for the past decade, rising 20% from 2014 to 2024. In 2024, 43,000 students graduated from universities serving the area.

Of the graduating class of 2024, the most common field of study was Liberal/Multicultural Studies, followed by Science & Engineering and Health Care. However, the fastest growing fields of study in the past five years were Software and Computer Sciences (+108% growth), Mathematics (+86%), and Construction (+85%).