San Joaquin County Per Capita Income Falls Further Away from the State
The San Joaquin County economy in general has grown as well as the state. From 1970 to 2004, both the county and the state saw total personal income growing over time and experienced the same business cycles. A further look revealed that during this period personal income in both economies grew at the same average rate of 7.9% per year.
Yet, the county economy is different from the state for it comprises a different mix of industries and demographics. It turns out that every dollar of personal income has to be shared by more people in the county than in the state. That is, personal income per capita is lower in the county than the state. Not only that, it actually has fallen further over time. In 1970, per capita personal income in the county was ranked 25th in the state, but was ranked 40th in 2004. Likewise, the ratio of the county’s per capita income to the state’s has gone down from 88.5% to 72.5%. Accordingly, as shown, the gap between the county and the state has widened over time. Two major factors drive this trend. First, the county has larger shares of low-paying industries such as construction and trade industries, while the state has larger shares of high-paying industries such as finance and professional-business services. Second, total population in the county has grown faster than the state; even more so in the last five years.
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Graph of the Week, June 12, 2006, Business Forecasting Center, University of the Pacific
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