Rural Area Recruitment

By: Hali Francis

One hurdle faced with PERM Recruitment is finding print options in rural areas, as these areas often have limited advertising options. At Park, we approach rural areas with a comprehensive search.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not provide a definition for “rural,” but it does state that rural areas include all geographic areas that are not classified as urban. Urban areas are classified as densely developed territory and include residential, commercial, and other nonresidential urban land uses. Each area must encompass at least 2,000 housing units or at least 5,000 people to be considered urban. Small towns that fall outside of those requirements can otherwise be considered rural.

For example, we had a client who needed to advertise in Potter County, South Dakota, where the population is only 2,300 people. We started by looking at the newspapers local to the area of advertisement and found the Potter County News, a paper that prints on Thursdays. We expanded the search and contacted the local library, which confirmed they only receive the Potter County News and another local paper with only weekday print.

For every case in a new location, the Park team checks the Metropolitan (or Micropolitan) Statistical Area for papers that are appropriate for a wider area, but many rural locations are not part of any statistical area, which was the case for Potter County.

We then contacted all the nearby Sunday or weekend papers, including Aberdeen News and Argus Leader, to confirm we had all the options, but none of the weekend papers had any circulation in Potter County.

For this and many other rural locations, our clients have chosen to advertise two weekdays in the highest circulating weekday paper in lieu of the Sunday paper or used a Saturday or weekend print when that option is available. If clients are unsure how to proceed based on the options in a location, we encourage them to check or post on AILA so other attorneys who may have similar recruitments can give them feedback.

At Park, our goal is to gather all the information needed for our clients to be capable of advertising in any location. We have successfully helped our clients navigate advertising in many areas, including some of the most rural counties in the United States. We look at this as a challenge, and we are well equipped to help our clients get through in the PERM process.