Whatcom County Median Income Rises
Bellingham, WA - Even though the economy seems to have tanked It’s been reported that local Whatcom County household incomes keep rising. Whatcom County median income is currently at $53,573 as job growth continues locally. When it comes to household income growth, Whatcom County has been doing great compared to the rest of the state in the last two years, according to a new state report.
The median household income in Whatcom County is up 4.7 percent from the preliminary 2006 numbers and up 12.2 percent from 2005, according to the Washington state Office of Financial Management.
Household income is determined by a variety of revenue streams, including salaries, dividends, rental income, retirement and disability income. The median measures the point at which half the households have more income and half have less. Statewide, median household income is up 4.2 percent year over year, and up 8.9 percent from 2005.
Hart Hodges, director for Western Washington University’s Center for Economics and Business Research, believes there are a variety of factors at work for the increase in wages. One is that the same increase in income will look like a bigger percentage change because Whatcom County has a smaller base. In addition, the impact of higher-wage jobs being added to large employers such as BP, Alcoa Intalco Works and WWU is being felt.
“We seem to be seeing a slight improvement in the job mix as the local economy gets larger,” Hodges said. “For example, larger economies tend to have relatively larger finance and information sectors, and we’ve seen some growth there. The job mix is slowly changing.”
Whatcom County has seen a steady rise without any year-over-year decreases in household income since 1989, when the median number was $28,367, according to the report.
Hodges expects wages to continue to rise in 2008 because of a continued tight labor market and a relatively low existing wage base. The local unemployment rate has been under 5 percent since January. Many economists consider anything under 5 percent to be full employment.
Skagit County has also done better than the state average. Year-over-year household income there rose 5.8 percent to $56,163. “Both (Whatcom and Skagit) counties have seen a few good years of job growth in manufacturing and work at the refineries,” Hodges said. Partially via bham herald.