Attitudes of Rural Youth towards Employment in Agricultural Sector: The Case of Gonbad-e Kavous County

Rural youth has a significant share from active population seeking employment. Agricultural sector has considerable potential, and with the possession of appropriate conditions can attract labor force and prevent uncontrolled migration to urban areas, where unemployment is highly prevalent. The present study is an attempt to examine the attitudes of rural youth to employment in agricultural sector in Gonbad-e Kavous county. The study is a descriptive/correlation survey. The statistical population consists of 39057 rural youth of the county in 2011 from which a sample size of 347 is selected by a stratified proportionate to size technique. More than half of the respondents evaluate residence in rural areas as desirable. Correlation results indicate that age, level of education, desirability of village residence and entrepreneurial spirit among rural youth have significant and positive relationships with the attitude of rural youth. The attitude of women and men varies significantly. Also, the attitudes of those with previous experience in entrepreneurial initiative differ significantly from those with no experience. Multivariate regression analysis reveals that entrepreneur characteristics such as ambiguity tolerance, challenging personality, and pragmatism can explain the variance in dependent variable.