Kern's personal income falling in weak economy

April 22--The personal income of Kern County residents is just 70 percent of the state's average income and is declining, according to new federal data released Thursday.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis looked at national, state and county income trends over the 10-year period from 1999 to 2009.

In 2009, Kern had a per capita personal income of $29,630, ranking it 47th in a state of 58 counties. That's compared with $42,395 in California and $39,635 in the United States.

The good news is income in Kern grew faster over the past decade than in California or the nation as a whole.

The average annual growth rate of personal income from 1999 to 2009 was 3.8 percent in Kern, compared with 3.3 percent for the state and 3.4 percent nationally.

In the last year of that decade, Kern income dropped 1.5 percent. The state saw a 3.3 percent decline from 2008 to 2009, and national per capita income fell 2.6 percent that year.

None of that was a surprise to John Emery, dean of Cal State Bakersfield's School of Business and Public Administration.

The strong presence of immigrant farm laborers in outlying areas of the county dramatically pulls down countywide assessments of wealth, he said.

"They work seasonally and when they do work they don't earn very much, so that always skews the data," Emery said.

But even accounting for that, there hasn't been much improvement over the last decade.

"What little bit of income growth we did get was pretty much in line with inflation, so in real terms of spending power and actually being able to buy something, there hasn't been much change," Emery said.

The decline in personal income late in the decade coincides almost perfectly with the collapse of the residential real estate market and the banking crisis that followed. That probably accounts for some of the drop, said Louis Medina, homeless project manager for United Way of Kern County.

"Certainly the people who were using their home equity as banks weren't able to do that anymore," he said.

There is still fallout from that years later, Medina added.

"There have always been certain populations at higher risk for homelessness -- kids aging out of the foster care system, returning veterans and young adults who don't have a strong support network," he said. "But what this economy has shown is entire families who are struggling because one or both parents have lost a job, especially single mothers."

Medina said there is, as a result, much more demand for safety net services from food banks, homeless shelters and federal funds that provide one-time emergency assistance with rent and utilities.

The region's jobless rate isn't helping matters. Kern County unemployment rate was 17.5 percent last month, compared with 12.3 percent for the state and 9.2 percent nationally, according to the California Employment Development Department.

The local rate is just slightly less than the 17.8 percent two-year high the county hit in March 2010, but on the bright side, it was the third straight month Kern was below the rate for the same time last year.

The increase of oil prices may be countering the negative impact of reduced demand in other industries, said Blodgie Rodriguez, a real estate agent who serves on the board of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"At this point we are still looking at a rough forecast for the next few years," she said, but added that if you earn enough to buy property, record low interest rates make this "an excellent time to capitalize on investing in the future."

-----

To see more of The Bakersfield Californian, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bakersfield.com.

Copyright (c) 2011, The Bakersfield Californian

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.