Personal income up in McAllen while U.S. sees decline
McALLEN — Personal income in the McAllen area grew slightly last year, while most metro areas in the United States experienced a decline.
Although the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area — which comprises all of Hidalgo County — saw 2.8 percent growth in personal income, per capita personal income remained stagnant, according to statistics released by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Per capita personal income is the personal income of the residents of an area divided by the population of that area. It allows apple-to-apple comparisons between areas even if they have very different populations.
Personal income — the income received by all people from all sources — declined last year in 223 of the nation’s metro areas, increased in 134 of them and remained unchanged in 9.
Pedro Salazar, president of the Edinburg Economic Development Corp., attributed the growth to an increase in educational attainment in the Rio Grande Valley.
“People are getting better prepared,” said Salazar, noting educators have made significant progress producing graduates to fill the area’s demand for health care workers.
Fall semester enrollment at South Texas College grew 23 percent from 2008 to 2009. That jump followed a 10 percent increase from 2007 to 2008 and an 8 percent increase from 2006 to 2007.
At the University of Texas-Pan American, fall enrollment grew 4 percent from 2008 to 2009, 1 percent from 2006 to 2007 and 1 percent from 2007 to 2008.
“The educational correlation is there,” said Wanda Garza, executive officer for workforce development at STC. “The jobs people are looking for in the area are higher skill, higher wages. That’s exciting to see in my lifetime.”
Steve Ahlenius, president of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, said growth in the medical and service sectors has helped the local economy.
“We’re continuing to add jobs in the region,” Ahlenius said. “We’re one of a few places in the country that are doing that.”
From 2007 to 2009, the public administration sector grew by 16 percent in terms of jobs in Hidalgo County, while county employment grew by 1 percent, according to a study released by the Center for Community and Business Research in San Antonio. The education services, health care and public administration sectors showed job growth and payroll strength in Starr and Hidalgo counties, according to the study.
Steady growth put the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area among the top 21 metro areas in the nation, according to MetroMonitor, a quarterly examination of the country’s 100 largest metro areas conducted by the Brookings Institution.
The county had 1.1 percent fewer jobs than at its peak during the fourth quarter of 2008 — the smallest job loss of the top 100.
But the unemployment rate in Hidalgo County is still the highest in the state, according to the most recent statistics released by the Texas Workforce Commission.
About 12.3 percent of the county’s civilian workforce remains unemployed, according to July data from the state agency. That compares to a rate of 5.9 percent three years earlier.
On average, personal income for the nation’s metro areas fell 1.8 percent in 2009, after rising 2.7 percent in 2008. Changes in personal income ranged from a 14 percent increase in Jacksonville, N.C., to a 7.1 percent decline in Naples, Fla.
Inflation fell to 0.2 percent in 2009 from 3.3 percent in 2008.
Nationwide, personal income increased $30 billion — or 0.2 percent — in July, according to the most recent statistics available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The consumer price index for urban areas in the southern United States with a population between 50,000 and 1.5 million — areas like Greater McAllen — grew by about 1 percent from July 2009 to the same month this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number dropped by less than half a percentage point in July compared to the month before.
Used as the basis for computing cost-of-living raises in many union contracts, the index is a measure of the change over time in the retail prices of a fixed set of goods and services, including housing, energy, clothing, food and transportation.
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Ana Ley covers business and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.
