Importance of Telecommuters to Small Towns

At a conference titled Rural Maine’s Next Economy held February 10, 2017, Ron Brown presented an analysis demonstrating the potential economic and social benefits of telecommuting workers to small rural towns.  These workers could be newcomers to a town or adults who grew up in a town and moved back.  The analysis showed that in a town of 500 persons, an established technical professional would raise the town’s household income by approximately 5%.  It’s important that enticing such workers does not require significant resources and the numbers are reasonably representative across the USA.