Central Valley counties see personal income rising

Central Valley counties joined a nationwide trend of growing personal income last year, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Merced, Stanislaus, Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties all registered increases in per capita income – the amount of income for every man, woman and child – between 2012 and 2013.

They joined the vast majority of counties across the United States where income rose. The federal agency reported that incomes grew in nearly 2,700 counties, fell in 390 and remained flat in 28.

But the Valley counties remain ranked near the bottom among California counties.

Merced County had a per capita personal income of $31,935 in 2013, an increase of 3.9 percent over the previous year. But it ranked near the bottom on the income list, coming in 56th out of the state’s 58 counties.

Stanislaus County fared better, hitting $35,259 last year, up 2.4 percent from 2012. And its income level ranked 45th, putting it near the top of the Valley’s counties.

Fresno County, where per capita income was estimated at $35,635 in 2013, up 3.2 percent, represented the Valley peak, at 44th among the state’s 58 counties. Madera County, with a per capita figure of $32,287, up 3 percent from 2012, ranked 54th.

Personal income is defined by the government as any income received by people from work, from owning a home or business, investments in financial assets such as stocks or bonds, and government aid – essentially, any income that a person can use to buy things, pay bills, taxes or interest, or to invest or save.

The per capita figure is calculated by dividing the total personal income of all residents in a county, by the number of people in the county.

The increases in the Valley seem to bolster recent economic figures that show the region is slowly coming out of the long, painful economic downturn that began with the housing market collapse in 2006.

The real estate meltdown, combined with the Great Recession, sent the region’s economy into a tailspin. Building slowed and eventually came to a stop, resulting in the loss of countless construction jobs as well as those in related industries, including financial services. Unemployment climbed and other businesses suffered, from retailers and restaurants to car dealers and pool builders.

But there are signs that the economy is finally starting to pick up in the Valley. Unemployment has retreated from its peak and continues to decline in most of the counties from 2013 levels. As those numbers have improved, new businesses have started returning.

Some new restaurants and retail chains have recently opened their doors in Merced and Stanislaus counties. Google has come to the Valley with two projects it’s developing using high-altitude balloons and driverless cars at the Castle Commerce Center in Atwater, while Restoration Hardware plans to join the ranks of distribution centers along Interstate 5 near Patterson.

Merced County recently lost 400 jobs with the closure of AT&T’s call centers, but UC Merced remains an economic force. The campus just reported it put more than $1.1 billion into the local economy, including wages and benefits paid, construction contracts awarded, and goods and services purchased.

And even in the face of extreme drought conditions, the agricultural economy has remained strong, with huge crops of almonds and tomatoes being harvested this year.

Yet, despite recent improvements in the region’s economy, Central Valley residents’ incomes continue to lag far behind the rest of the state. The highest per capita income reported for California was $97,124 in Marin County. The lowest was $30,818 in Del Norte County.

Nationwide, per capita personal income ranged from a high of $121,632 in New York County, N.Y., to a low of $17,536 in Telfair County, Ga.

This story was originally published November 23, 2014 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Central Valley counties see personal income rising."