For the past year, the Center for Rural Innovation (CORI) has been researching the state of tech employment across the country.

In their new report, Rural America’s Tech Employment Landscape, the five-year-old nonprofit organization answers these questions and more:

• What is the state of tech employment in rural communities?
• What are rural employers looking for in a tech workforce, and what types of tech training programs are most helpful to get learners and workers through the door?
• And how are aspiring tech workers learning about local opportunities? 

The concentration of tech jobs in big cities is clear. “Technological innovation and its corresponding employment have been strong drivers of economic growth over the last 15 years. Yet most of this growth has occurred in metro areas and been especially concentrated in a few superstar cities,” according to the report.

It also offers this call-to-action. “Without a concerted effort to grow tech economies in rural areas, the economic disparity and opportunity gap between rural and urban places will only continue to grow.”

CORI offers its recommendations on how to grow these tech opportunities in rural America. You can read them and the full report here.