Preble County had the lowest per capita personal income in the region at $36,288, which ranked No. 56 among all counties in Ohio, and was up 1.8 percent from the previous year.
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By comparison, Delaware County — part of the Columbus metro area — had the highest per capita personal income in the state last year at $64,634, up 3.7 percent from last year, while Noble County ranked dead last in Ohio with per capita personal income of $29,300.
Personal income represents all income from all sources, including work, bank accounts, government payments and investments.
Nationwide, the 2015 personal income grew in 2,552 counties, fell in 548, and was unchanged in 13, according to BEA estimates. On average, personal income rose 4.7 percent in 2015 in the metropolitan portion of the United States and rose 2.7 percent in the non-metropolitan portion.
Per capita personal income ranged from $16,007 in Wheeler County, Georgia to $194,861 in Teton County, Wyoming, while personal income growth in 2015 ranged from -30.3 percent in Sully County, South Dakota to 35.0 percent in Loving County, Texas, the BEA reported.
While personal incomes were up across the Miami Valley, the total increase from 2014 for the nine-county region — 3 percent — fell slightly below the state and national trends.
In Ohio, per capital personal income was $43,566 in 2015, up 3.3 percent from the previous year, while personal income, on average, in the United States rose 3.7 percent to $48,112 last year, according to the BEA.
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The growth in personal income highlights disparities in the local economy because wages and salaries are the largest component of personal income.
While the fastest growing counties have seen the addition of high-paying factory, high-tech and health care jobs, most of the jobs being added in the slowest-growing counties are being added in lower-wage positions in retail, leisure and hospitality — more closely reflecting the statewide trend.
In Montgomery County, for example, where such companies as Fuyao Glass America Inc. and CareSource have added thousands of jobs to local payrolls, per capita personal income jumped 3.6 percent last year to $42,223.
Meanwhile, rural areas like Miami and Preble counties — where job growth has stalled in recent years — personal incomes grew less than 2 percent to $36,288 and $41,781, respectively.
In addition to bleak job prospects, displaced workers in some communities have seen their incomes cut dramatically, according to Hannah Halbert, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, which tracks the state’s labor market.
“The big problem in Ohio is that we have seen this big labor force decline,” she said. “Some folks may be going back to school or getting retrained or taking care of kids or parents, but there has been such a substantial loss that there are still lots of people who are discouraged and unable to work or are working part-time in some areas.”
Ohio’s labor force dropped again in October by 19,000. And since the start of the last recession in December 2007, the state’s labor force has shrunk by 245,000, and Ohio’s annual job growth rate is now under 1 percent, according to a recent report from Policy Matters.
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