(Source: Ventura County Star)
By Stephanie Hoops, Ventura County Star, Calif.
April 21--Stung by the recession, total personal income earned by residents of Ventura County fell 1.6 percent in 2009, according to data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The drop 1.6 percent drop is significant when you consider that the average annual growth rate in Ventura County is 4.5 percent. It means more than 800,000 county residents took in nearly $595 million less from all sources.
However, the county's decline was less than the decreases for the state, 2.3 percent, and nation, 1.7 percent.
Matt Mullens, an economist with the California Economic Forecast in Goleta, said the data was exactly what was expected.
"It reinforces what we knew, that 2009 was a bad year," he said.
Ventura County ranked 12th in the state in 2009 in per capita personal income, at $45,908, which is 108 percent of the state's average of $42,395 and 116 percent of the nation's average of $39,635, according to the report.
Marin County was the top-ranked region in the state with per capita personal income of $89,139, although that was a decrease of 4.4 percent from 2008. San Mateo came in second, at $69,562.
The state's February jobs data -- with nearly 100,000 new jobs added -- signaled a real turn around from the recessionary period that began in late 2007. Economists called the report the most vibrant for California since before the recession and the most promising for Ventura County since October. The downward trend in state and local unemployment continued in March.
With more than 200,000 jobs having been created statewide since September, the California Economic Forecast expects continued momentum in job growth in coming months.
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