Personal Income, Growth in Bell County

Personal income and per-capita income in Central Texas grew faster and higher than in many other parts of the country from 2006 to 2007, new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows.
Over the past four years, wage growth has far outdistanced the rate of inflation.

The BEA released its latest regional personal income figures late last week.

Across the country, some counties actually saw a decline in personal income and per-capita income. For example, in McPherson County, Neb., growth was a –11 percent. In Bell County, per capita income grew by 6 percent, but in the Temple, Killeen and Fort Hood metro area, per-capita income grew by 11 percent.

Since 2004, metro area personal income has grown by 39 percent. Bell County personal income has gone up by 10 percent during that same period of time.

“We’re catching up,” Lee Peterson, CEO and president of Temple Economic Development Corp., said.

Ken Higdon, president and CEO of the Temple Chamber of Commerce, said the income growth is due to an increase in the number of high-tech and medical- or science-related jobs in this region.

“Many, many, many of our jobs now require more education and skills, and they pay better wages,” Peterson said, echoing Higdon’s assessment relative to the creation of jobs in high-tech and medical-scientific fields.

If the metro areas’ personal income had grown between 2004 and 2007 at the rate of inflation, the 2007 total would have been only $7.68 billion, not $9.7 billion. Growth at only the rate of inflation for that period in Bell County per-capita income would have meant a wage of only $30,500 rather than $34,414.