Location, education propel Asian income growth in US
ORLANDO,Fla.—AsianAmerican households saw the biggest income growth of any racial or ethnic group in the United States over the past decade and a half — almost 8%, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Household income for Latinos grew by nearly 6% over that time, while households led by non-Hispanic whites and Blacks had comparatively stagnant income growth — 3% and almost 2%, respectively — over the past decade and a half.
Nationwide, median household income grew 2.3% from the 2005-09 period to the 201519 period, according to the latest five-year American Community Survey.
Economists said a lot of the difference in income growth among racial and ethnic groups has to do with the thriving job markets where Asian American and Latino-led households are concentrated — cities and communities in the West and Southwest.
“As the labor market tightened more in certain areas and in certain fields, we would see more robust income growth for those groups,” Ohio State economist Trevon Logan said in an email. While income growth has been comparatively flat in a vast majority of U.S. counties, it has been concentrated in a handful of communities, said William Spriggs, aneconomist at Howard University.
“So, I suspect recent Asian and Latino immigration has been to these high growth areas,” Spriggs said.
Education also played an
important role, said Marlene Kim, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. More than 54% of Asian Americans had a bachelor’s degree, the highest of any racial or ethnic group, compared with 32% overall for U.S. residents, according to the 2015-19 American Community Survey.
By comparison, 35.8% of non-Hispanic whites, 21.6% of Blacks and 16.4% of Latinos had bachelor’s degrees.
“We are in a knowledge economy, and a college education is key to getting professional jobs that pay well. Asians have the highest percentage of getting a college degree, and I think you are seeing that effect,” Kim said. “Asians are more likely to be in professional and technical jobs, whicharethriving andincreasing their pay and income level.”
By the same measure, location andjobmarkets also played a role
in the stagnant incomegrowthfor Black-led households, with large numbers geographically clustered in the South, economists said.
“For Black households, we continue to see them struggle for the same reasons. Blacks are overrepresented in public employment, whichexperienced anemic income growth,” Logan said. “Also, Blacks in rural areas, especially in the rural South, are located in places with substantial business losses and weak job growth.”
Households led by Asian Americans had a median household income of $88,204 over the five-year period covered by the 2015-19 American Community Survey, the highest of any racial or ethnic group. Asian Americans make up almost 6% of the U.S. population. Nationwide, the median household income for 2015-19 was $62,843.