I know Tompkins County has a more stable economy than the rest of Upstate New York and even lots of other places, but I didn't expect to see this in a report today on income shifts in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs):
In most of the 57 MSAs where net earnings increased, the gains were concentrated in the government sector. Military earnings growth was particularly strong in seven of the ten MSAs with the fastest personal income growth in 2009: Jacksonville and Fayetteville, North Carolina; Manhattan, Kansas; Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Lawton, Oklahoma; Clarksville, Tennessee; and Killeen, Texas.
Only in five MSAs (Kennewick, Washington; Cumberland, Maryland; Morgantown, West Virginia; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; and Ithaca, New York;) did the private sector account for most of earnings growth in 2009.
We didn't do all that well per capita, though, as the table below - for New York State and nearby MSAs shows:
| Total personal income, millions of $ | Per capita personal income, $ | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2008 | 2009 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Rank, 2009 | % change 2008 | %change 2009 |
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | 34,883 | 36,327 | 36,291 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 40,941 | 42,523 | 42,318 | 46 | 3.9 | -0.5 |
| Binghamton, NY | 8,066 | 8,415 | 8,348 | 4.3 | -0.8 | 32,870 | 34,367 | 34,116 | 198 | 4.6 | -0.7 |
| Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY | 40,778 | 42,317 | 42,155 | 3.8 | -0.4 | 36,216 | 37,647 | 37,511 | 115 | 4.0 | -0.4 |
| Burlington-South Burlington, VT | 8,258 | 8,517 | 8,582 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 40,059 | 41,139 | 41,247 | 56 | 2.7 | 0.3 |
| Elmira, NY | 2,788 | 2,942 | 2,899 | 5.5 | -1.5 | 31,656 | 33,469 | 32,814 | 241 | 5.7 | -2.0 |
| Ithaca, NY | 3,251 | 3,420 | 3,423 | 5.2 | 0.1 | 32,374 | 33,856 | 33,632 | 212 | 4.6 | -0.7 |
| Glens Falls, NY | 4,087 | 4,248 | 4,249 | 3.9 | 0.0 | 31,833 | 33,018 | 32,994 | 233 | 3.7 | -0.1 |
| Kingston, NY | 6,488 | 6,694 | 6,619 | 3.2 | -1.1 | 35,738 | 36,836 | 36,481 | 135 | 3.1 | -1.0 |
| New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA | 1,018,093 | 1,041,636 | 998,777 | 2.3 | -4.1 | 53,864 | 54,914 | 52,375 | 9 | 1.9 | -4.6 |
| Pittsfield, MA | 5,462 | 5,602 | 5,590 | 2.6 | -0.2 | 41,941 | 43,237 | 43,240 | 38 | 3.1 | 0.0 |
| Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY | 26,126 | 26,961 | 26,598 | 3.2 | -1.3 | 39,109 | 40,119 | 39,282 | 76 | 2.6 | -2.1 |
| Rochester, NY | 39,852 | 41,132 | 40,586 | 3.2 | -1.3 | 38,635 | 39,812 | 39,192 | 78 | 3.0 | -1.6 |
| Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA | 18,807 | 19,445 | 19,747 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 34,244 | 35,399 | 35,940 | 148 | 3.4 | 1.5 |
| Syracuse, NY | 23,069 | 23,852 | 23,766 | 3.4 | -0.4 | 35,797 | 36,980 | 36,784 | 130 | 3.3 | -0.5 |
| Utica-Rome, NY | 9,275 | 9,656 | 9,698 | 4.1 | 0.4 | 31,614 | 32,975 | 33,069 | 231 | 4.3 | 0.3 |
| Williamsport, PA | 3,529 | 3,657 | 3,733 | 3.6 | 2.1 | 30,208 | 31,344 | 31,950 | 265 | 3.8 | 1.9 |
There are 366 total MSAs, which helps make some sense of the 'rank'.
Posted by simon at August 9, 2010 5:13 PM in economy
If total personal income is up and per capita income is down, there must be an increase in population. And the increase in total income is not keeping up with the population increase.
This is true of almost all the MSAs you list here. I wonder if the population increase is birth rate or the dreaded immigration.
I have a suspicion that the population figures are all estimates, so I have doubts about how much to trust them.
I also wonder how they're counting students in the Ithaca MSA particularly - it seems a little odd that Tompkins County would be less prosperous than Binghamton (Broome/Tioga) and only a little more prosperous than Elmira (Chemung).
The part about the private sector was what really caught my eye, but then I figured I should provide some more context. The abbreviated table is sort of useful, but I'm not sure how seriously to take its details.