Income

A good indicator of job quality, economic vitality, and the capacity of residents to afford housing, transportation, and other necessities of a good quality of life is a person's income. While average wages in the core counties are comparable to the nation and higher than the state, a wage gap remains. In the core counties, as well as in the state, average annual wages have not kept pace with the housing wage. In addition, per capita income growth, which includes wages, rents, investment returns, and government transfer payments, has slowed considerably since about 2000. Other indicators detect a minor shift in the sources of income and the amount of income, which alludes to a changing economic environment.