The widening divide

Visual form

Three-panel bubble-scatter sequence.

Layout / body structure

The chart unfolds as three related scatterplots shown panel by panel: willingness to move for work, willingness to switch jobs, and interest in job training. Each panel uses the same x-axis, the same ten numbered occupation groups, the same urban-versus-rural color key, and dashed reference lines for the urban and rural averages, so the reader can compare one panel to the next without relearning the frame.

What is being compared

Each panel compares urban and rural respondents across ten occupation groups that face different levels of automation displacement risk by 2030. The comparison changes by panel theme: one chart looks at willingness to move for work, one at willingness to switch occupations, and one at willingness to pursue training opportunities.

Measurement system

The horizontal axis shows the percent of workers at risk of automation displacement by 2030, while the vertical axis shows the share of respondents reporting the relevant willingness measure. Bubble size represents the percent of the workforce in that occupation group, blue marks urban respondents, dark marks rural respondents, and the dashed horizontal lines show the average urban and rural levels in each panel.

Visible structure inside the graphic

Every occupation appears as a matched urban-rural bubble pair with the same numeric label, which lets the reader compare location first and occupation second. The highest-risk occupations cluster on the right side of each chart, lower-risk occupations cluster nearer the left, and the vertical gap between blue and dark bubbles makes the urban-rural split visible across all three panels.

Main takeaway from the visual

Across all three panels, urban respondents sit higher than rural respondents, so rural Americans appear consistently less willing to move, switch occupations, or pursue training even when they work in occupations with similar automation risk. The widening divide is therefore visible both in the repeated blue-above-dark pattern and in the lower rural average line each time.

Key standout values or extremes

The most automation-exposed occupations sit around the far-right side of the plots, especially office and administrative work, food preparation, and production. In the training panel the urban bubbles for those groups rise to roughly the mid-50s while the matching rural bubbles sit much lower, around the low-30s to low-40s, and the same right-side separation is visible in the move-for-work and switch-jobs panels as well.

Controls / sequence, when applicable

The source is presented as a short three-step image sequence rather than a user-controlled dashboard, so the reader moves through fixed panels instead of using filters or hover interactions.

Companion media, when applicable

There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.