It's been hard for U.S. companies to find U.S. software developers who will work for wages anywhere near as low as their counterparts overseas, but perhaps companies have been looking in the wrong places. In small, rural towns across the country, development centers employing relatively affordable programmers are cropping up in growing numbers.

Because the cost of living is so much lower in rural areas than in cities--and because many people find the quality of life to be better--developers in many small towns work relatively cheaply. Companies that make use of this rural outsourcing phenomenon can pay 25 percent to 50 percent less than they'd pay outsourcers in metropolitan areas, reports Jennifer Alsever at CNNMoney.

Corporations as large as R.J. Reynolds and GlaxoSmithKline are taking advantage of the opportunity. They've both hired Rural Sourcing, which operates a development center in Jonesboro, Ark., where the cost of living is 23 percent lower than the average U.S. cost of living. Rural Sourcing's strategy is to locate its facilities near rural universities.

Other rural outsourcing companies are finding opportunities in hiring IT workers close to retirement age, or recruiting employees in towns where there are few alternatives to minimum-wage work.

For more:
- see Jennifer Alsever's article at CNNMoney

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