Earnings-per-Job

Sierra Nevada Economy Must Create More High Wage Jobs

Why is it important?

Earnings-per-job measures the purchasing power of people who work in the local economy. It is determined by economic activities, workforce quality, and the unemployment rate.

How are we doing?

People who work in the Sierra Nevada have consistently earned lower wages than the average Californian, which shows why non-residents so easily outbid residents for homes. As the earning gap grows, Sierra Nevadans lose more ground and many choose to move away rather than continue to struggle financially. Lower earnings-per-job are the result of the Sierra Nevada having a high proportion of consumer service and retail jobs, as well as a workforce without skills for higher wage jobs. For Sierra Nevada communities to prosper in the long-term, our economy must create more high wage jobs.

Even in the comparatively wealthy North Central, earnings averaged 25 percent below the state level and the gap has remained constant since 1993. In the North, earnings were 30 percent below the state average, up from 25 percent below in 1993. This region maintained higher average earnings because it had only a small retail sector and greater dependence on government and manufacturing jobs.

In South Central and East, earnings were a shocking 40 percent below the state average, greater than the average gap of 32 percent for rural U.S. counties. This gap increased from 30 percent in 1993, most likely because of the growth of consumer service and retail jobs and the severe decrease in mining and timber jobs.

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