Income report: Rome up 2.2 percent in 2016
Floyd County’s cost of living is well below national norms.
The average Floyd County wage earner made $36,470 in 2016, up 2.2 percent from the previous year. The new report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce Thursday shows that Floyd County ranked ninth for per capita real personal income among the 14 metropolitan statistical areas in Georgia.
Personal income locally was almost $13,000 below the national figure of $49,246
Personal income is the income received by worker from all sources. It does not include capital gains or losses.
The BEA report also examines regional price parities across the country.
Using national data as the baseline, the cost of living in Rome was 18.9 percent below the national average. Rents in Rome are 39 percent below the national average.
Atlanta was number one with a per capita income figure of $47,348, followed by Savannah at $42,758, Warner Robins at $39,225, Gainesville at $39,065 and Augusta at 38,817.
Dalton checked in at number 12 among the 14 metro areas at $33,837. Hinesville brought up the rear at $31,717.
Rome’s figure was up a modest $800 from 2015 when per capita real personal income was $35,670. Georgia Highlands College professor of economics Bruce Jones said the income figure coupled with new employment data from the Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday were both positive.
“Obviously we wish we were growing by about 10 percent a year, but this is nice steady growth,” Jones said.
The Department of Labor report showed that Rome employers added 400 jobs to the local economy from April of 2017 to April of 2018. 41,500 jobs were attributed to Floyd County-based businesses in April.
All 14 of the Georgia metropolitan areas registered increases from 2015 to 2016, ranging from lows of 0.8 percent in Savannah and 1.1 percent in Hinesville to highs of 3.1 percent in Atlanta and 3.3 percent in Dalton.
The Department of Labor also indicated Thursday that first time claims for unemployment assistance filed by out-of-work Floyd County residents dropped by 43.5 percent from April of 2017 to April 2018. 280 first time claims were filed in April last year compared to just 143 last month. A first time claim is a claim filed by someone who has not received unemployment benefits in the past 12 months.