Back in the day, when I was in my 20s, before the Internet was thought of, I posted a personal ad in a hip, big-city alternative paper. Got nothing.

Later, I moved to a smaller city in the Midwest. I posted a personal ad in the local daily newspaper, which had a smaller circulation than the big-city alternative paper. I got a like 40 responses.

Now, they weren’t great responses. One woman wrote “call me” but didn’t include her phone number or last name. Others never returned my call. And so on.

I got a total of one awkward date (we went to see “Ghost Busters” in a theater, which indicates what era this was).

But here’s the thing. Single men are ambitious and mobile. They go to where the economic activity is, and are in oversupply anywhere lots of new jobs are.

Women tend to remain in their hometowns, where their families are. If a place is bleeding population and jobs, there is probably an oversupply of single women.

I don’t have any good advice for surviving in a place that doesn’t have many jobs available, but if you can thread that needle, you’re in a better position to find a partner.