Rural Industrialization in the Ozarks : Case Study of a New Shirt Plant at Gassville, Arkansas. Agricultural Economic Report No. 123 / Max F. Jordon.

To determine the short term effects of a large apparel plant on the economy of a relatively isolated, highly rural Ozark area (8 counties), characterized by low income and few employment opportunities, this study compared 1959 data on the study area and the state of Arkansas with similar post plant data (1960-1963). Data were compared on income distribution, major income sources, agriculture, labor force characteristics, educational distribution, public facilities, employment (manufacturing, nonmanufacturing, and covered), jobs generated by shirt plant, estimated income increase, and paid unemployment benefits. Approximately a 13 percent increase in total personal income was attributed to the shirt plant which began operations in the fall of 1960 at Gassville in Baxter County. Total annual employment at the plant was estimated to have become stabilized at about 1,170 persons (750 jobs in the plant itself with an estimated $2.2 million payroll, 85 indirect jobs in the study area, and 335 jobs elsewhere, most employees being women), but due to a slowdown of male out migration and the addition of previously unemployed females to the unemployed roles, unemployment was not significantly reduced. Though public schools were little affected, improved medical facilities, a public water system, an airport, and a fire department were among the public facilities resulting from plant development. (JC)

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