Residents in Davie, Stokes and Yadkin counties don't mind having Forsyth County as a big brother when it comes to providing job opportunities, officials with AngelouEconomics, a consulting group, said yesterday.

But they would like to reduce their dependency enough so that the majority of their residents can find suitable employment inside the rural counties' borders, they said.

AngelouEconomics presented its first research update yesterday and Tuesday about residents' comments since it began an eight-month study of Northwest North Carolina in February. It will issue an economic assessment for each county in the fall, as well as a regional outlook.

"The reality of economic development in most rural counties is that they serve as a bedroom community for professionals who work in the urban area," said Travis Warziniack, a research manager with AngelouEconomics.

"The great hope of economic developers and officials in rural counties is that industries will recognize the demographics in the commuting patterns and choose to set up operations in the neighboring areas," Warziniack said.

According to 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data, 71 percent of Stokes' potential work force leaves the county for jobs, or more than 15,000 adults. Forsyth receives 67 percent of those commuters.

Of Davie's nearly 9,000 commuters, 58 percent work in Forsyth, while of Yadkin's nearly 10,000 commuters, 56 percent are employed in Forsyth.

"Our proximity to Forsyth has been a blessing because it provides jobs for our residents and has fueled our residential housing growth," said Ron Morgan, the economic-development director for Stokes.

"It also sometimes is a curse because we tend to get lumped in with Forsyth when it comes to federal economic assistance, which means our economic numbers tend to look better than they really are."

Rural counties traditionally have had apparel, furniture or textile manufacturers as their major employers, who moved there to benefit from lower labor and operations costs.

That base, however, has dwindled considerably in the past five years as manufacturers pursue even lower labor costs overseas, especially in China. Davie lost a 350-worker employer last year when Lexington Home Brands closed its Mocksville wood-furniture plant. Yadkin was hit in April with 135 layoffs by Unifi Inc. at its Yadkinville yarn operations.

Stokes' dependency on jobs based in Forsyth is compounded by the fact that it generates only one job for every five residents, and most of those jobs historically has been in tobacco and apparel. Recent job creation has been in the health and social-services sectors.

"That's why higher-educational initiatives, such as a satellite community college presence, are so vital so that we can provide competitive skills to our current and future residents," Morgan said.

Of the three counties, Yadkin has the most potential for a growth industry in viticulture, the report found.

"The potential for tax revenue and tourism related to the wine industry is tremendous and will greatly impact local industries such as tourism and services," the report found.

Chris Engle, a senior analyst with the firm, said that Yadkin is in a good economic position because it can capture growth from the mountains to the west and Winston-Salem and Forsyth to the east.

"The county's fortunate to have a lot of excellent highways," Engle said. It also has countywide zoning and less expensive land than some neighboring counties, which makes it attractive to developers.

Davie has a different economic challenge from the other rural counties, said Amy Holloway, the vice president of economic development for AngelouEconomics.

Davie's population base has grown by 25 percent during the 1990s to 36,200 last year, according to the Davie County Chamber of Commerce. Davie is mostly attracting high-income and skilled professionals as residents, particularly in the Bermuda Run and Advance areas.

"The problem is that it has yet to attract jobs in Davie for this potential county work force," Holloway said.

The largest job growth has been in the finance, insurance and real-estate sectors, the report found. Terry Bralley, the county manager for Davie, said that officials are focusing on technology, plastics and injection-modeling businesses.

"A goal for all of us is to strategically reduce our interdependency," Bralley said. "If we can get businesses to locate in Davie, it not only would increase our tax base and improve our quality of life, but also create more job opportunities for Forsyth residents as well."

AngelouEconomics was hired last year by the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments and the Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce to survey the region through September. The full survey, to be released in the fall, will cost $500,000.

• Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com

• Journal reporter Theo Helm contributed to this article.