Economy

Economy

Data Committee Results
General Population Survey Results
Non-English Speaking Survey Results
Community Leader Survey Results

Data Committee Results

Personal and household income
Per Capita income in Snohomish County (1990 thru 1998)

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Income	23,486	23,371	23,728	23,520	23,784

	1995	1996	1997	1998
Income	23,839	24,802	26,231	27,015

Snohomish county ranks 4^th in the state in per capita income.

Median Household income:

Median Household Income for Snohomish County 1989 - 2000

	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Income	36847	38857	39913	41892	42674	43934

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Income	44964	47358	50631	52599	52450	54253

Annual Average Wage (1998, WA St Employment Security, Snohomish County Profile) (Amounts adjusted to 1998 dollars)

Snohomish County: $34,124

Washington State: $35,724

U.S. Average $31,908 (1998 is most recent year available for U.S.)

Since 1984, the Snohomish County real average wage has increased steadily from a low of $27,992 to $34,124 in 1998, before declining slightly to $33,899 in 1999.

Unemployment rate (Source: Employment security dept)
The Snohomish county unemployment rate has always been slightly lower than the statewide unemployment rate, except from 1982 to 1985 when they were virtually the same. The unemployment rate has gone from 1982’s high point of 11.8 % to a steady decline through 1990 to 3.9 %. By 1992 the rate was back to 7.0 %. It had been in steady decline since then reaching an all time low of 3.0 % in 1998, before increasing to 3.9 % in 1999 (due primarily to Boeing layoffs) with a slight decline to 3.8 % in 2000. (See Graphs on next page)

Unemployment rate for Snohomish County

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Civilian Labor Force	261,400	259,700	269,800	275,100	279,300	288,800
Total Employment	251,400	245,100	251,000	255,800	261,400	272,200
Total Unemployment	10,000	14,600	18,800	19,300	17,900	16,600
Unemployment Rate	3.83%	5.62%	6.97%	7.02%	6.41%	5.75%

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Civilian Labor Force	298,900	320,800	335,600	346,400	343,800
Total Employment	283,100	309,900	325,100	332,800	329,700
Total Unemployment	15,800	10,900	10,500	13,600	14,100
Unemployment Rate	5.29%	3.40%	3.13%	3.93%	4.10%

Total Unemployment and Unemployment Rate for Snohomish County 1990-2000

Snohomish County
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS IN STATE FISCAL YEAR 1999
	Total Grants $	Monthly Average ($)	% Of County Population	County Rank by % of Population
Aged	$369,535	1,051	0.18	13
Blind	34,221	82	0.01	21
Disabled	2,334,110	5,721	0.98	34
TANF	22,302,792	12,250	2.10	35
Diversion	271,983	64	0.01	14
CEAP	75,173	44	0.01	27
General Assistance	4,519,490	1,705	0.29	20
Refugee Assistance	268,533	82	0.01	6
Food Stamps	18,474,075	22,397	3.84	36
Medical Assistance-FY 98	$113,771,276	56,719	9.98	34

Persons below Poverty
1997 model based estimate (U.S. Census, 2000)

Snohomish County: 7.2%
Washington State: 10.2%

Children below poverty
1997 model based estimate (U.S. Census, 2000)

Snohomish County: 10.4%
Washington State: 15.2%

New housing construction permits

1999: 7440

Housing Units
	1990	2000	Increase
Snohomish County	183,935	241,763	31.4%

Number of Licensed Child Care Spaces
(Childcare Resource and Referral Network, Quarterly report, July – Sept 2000)

Providers: 937
Spaces: 16,722

County Trends: 1997 Average Wage Compared to 1980 Average Wage

Inflation-adjusted dollars

The State average wage rebounded to 1980 levels by 1995, but not all counties experienced the rebound to the same degree.
In 1995, only ten of the state's 39 counties had average wage above the 1980 level (after adjusting for inflation).
As of 1997, fewer than one half of Washington's counties had completely rebounded from the loss of high-wage manufacturing jobs of the 1980s.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, updated June 1999

State of Washington Office of Financial Mangement
(see http://www.ofm.wa.gov/trends/gr99_6-07.htm)

County Trends: Change in Average Wage, 1989 - 1997

Inflation-adjusted to 1997 dollars

Growth has been more even across the state since 1989.
Between 1989 and 1997, real average wages improved statewide, with the greatest gains in the Puget Sound region.
Some lumber-dependend counties have seen modest increases in average wage: Clallam, Mason, Grays Harbor, Pacific, and Lewis.
However, real average wages have decreased in some lunber-dependent counties: Jefferson, Cowitz, Skamania, and Okanogan.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, updated June 1999.

State of Washington Office of Financial Management
(See http://www.ofm.wa.gov/trends/gr99_6-05.htm)

County Trends: Average Wage, 1997

Although some agriculture- and lumber-dependent counties showed improvement in the early 1990s, these areas continued to lag behind the rest of the state in average wages in 1997
The state's metropolitan counties continued to have the highest real average wages in 1997.
The counties with average wages of $25,00 or more are King, Snohomish, Benton, Clark, Kitsap, Cowlitz, Thurston, Pierce, Spokane, Klickitat, Pend Orielle, and Island.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, updated June 1999.

State of Washington Office of Financial Management
(See http://www.ofm.wa.gov/trends/gr99_6-06.htm)

Washington Counties Ranked by DSHS Service Use - FY 2000

				Use rate by Age
County	Population Census 2000	DSHS Clients FY2000	Use Rate for All Ages	0-17	18-64	65+
Adams	16,428	6,855	41.7%	76.8%	24.4%	17.6%
Asotin	20,551	6,620	32.2%	59.1%	24.8%	12.2%
Benton	142,475	33,790	23.7%	42.4%	15.9%	10.3%
Chelan	66,616	19,530	29.3%	57.8%	19.5%	11.6%
Clallam	64,525	15,665	24.3%	51.1%	19.3%	8.0%
Clark	345,238	72,975	21.1%	37.9%	14.3%	12.2%
Columbia	4,064	1,445	35.6%	61.2%	30.6%	16.6%
Cowlitz	92,948	26,505	28.5%	50.3%	21.9%	11.0%
Douglas	32,603	8,645	26.5%	50.8%	17.5%	9.5%
Ferry	7,260	2,350	32.4%	54.8%	25.4%	14.2%
Franklin	49,347	21,365	43.3%	74.8%	27.0%	18.7%
Garfield	2,397	490	20.4%	40.2%	14.5%	9.0%
Grant	74,698	25,515	34.2%	61.0%	22.7%	13.3%
Grays Harbor	67,194	21,970	32.7%	58.5%	25.3%	15.1%
Island	71,558	11,345	15.9%	30.0%	11.2%	6.0%
Jefferson	25,953	5,655	21.8%	49.8%	16.9%	6.2%
King	1,737,034	279,510	16.1%	33.2%	10.4%	13.0%
Kitsap	231,969	43,340	18.7%	32.9%	12.7%	12.3%
Kittitas	33,362	6,355	19.0%	44.5%	12.1%	9.9%
Klickitat	19,161	6,120	31.9%	59.0%	23.1%	13.0%
Lewis	68,600	21,445	31.3%	56.9%	22.8%	15.4%
Lincoln	10,184	1,835	18.0%	33.8%	13.1%	9.8%
Mason	49,405	12,970	26.3%	54.4%	19.4%	7.7%
Okanogan	39,564	14,055	35.5%	66.4%	24.6%	14.3%
Pacific	20,984	5,850	27.9%	57.2%	22.8%	11.7%
Pend Oreille	11,732	4,155	35.4%	63.2%	27.8%	15.1%
Pierce	700,820	158,445	22.6%	40.2%	15.9%	13.2%
San Juan	14,077	1,905	13.5%	36.5%	8.7%	3.9%
Skagit	102,979	25,330	24.6%	48.6%	17.0%	9.4%
Skamania	9,872	2,095	21.2%	38.9%	15.1%	9.7%
Snohomish	606,024	103,935	17.2%	29.7%	11.6%	12.5%
Spokane	417,939	103,585	24.8%	45.1%	18.2%	13.8%
Stevens	40,066	11,770	29.4%	51.4%	21.1%	12.8%
Thurston	207,355	39,880	19.2%	36.2%	13.4%	10.0%
Wahkiakum	3,824	810	21.2%	44.1%	14.2%	10.6%
Walla Walla	55,180	13,795	25%	50.7%	17.0%	12.2%
Whatcom	166,814	36,655	22.0%	43.6%	15.0%	11.5%
Whitman	40,740	5,500	13.5%	36.7%	7.9%	8.6%
Yakima	222,581	91,995	41.3%	72.7%	27.3%	19.6%
Unknown County	0	18,430	-	-	-	-
State Total	5,894,121	1,290,485	21.9%	41.6%	14.8%	12.6%

Note: The number of DSHS clients has been rounded to multiples of 5 and represents those that received one or more DSHS services during fiscal year 2000 (7/1999-6/2000).

Source: "Washington County Population and Use of DSHS Services: FY2000", DSHS Research & Data Analysis Div, Olympia, WA: 01/2002 (http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/rda/research/clientdata/default.shtm).

General Population Survey Results

Respondents are "on the fence" about whether they want to see more commercial and industrial businesses in their community. The mean score of 3.5 is the exact middle of the seven-point scale.

Expansion of Commercial/Industrial Businesses
Those who most strongly agree with the expansion of business in the community were:

Men (28%) versus women (17%).
Those who had lived in their homes 5 years or less (26%) compared with those who had lived in their homes longer (18%).
Renters (28%) compared to owners (21%).
Those who have needed financial assistance in the last 12 months (34%) compared to those who haven't (21%).

Non-English Speaking Survey Results

On the subject of their support for expansion of commercial and industrial business in the community, non-English speaking respondents gave a similar average rating as the general population (3.7 and 3.5 respectively); however, non-English speaking respondents were much more likely to not venture an opinion either by saying don't know or not answering the question (18% compared to 3% of the general population).

Job security was much more of a concern to non-English speaking respondents than to the general population. Only 7% strongly agreed that their job is secure for the foreseeable future compared to 48% of the general population. In a similar fashion, non-English speaking respondents had a much lower level of disagreement with the statement that their household had difficulty paying for necessities such as food and housing. While 69% of the general population strongly disagreed that they have difficulty paying for necessities, just 24% of non-English speaking respondents disagreed. More than two in five (42%) non-English speaking respondents strongly agreed that that having enough money left after paying rent is a concern; among the general population 22% strongly agreed with this concern. More non-English speaking respondent households (47%) have had at least one adult trying to find work in the past 12 months than in the general population (35%), and only 3% of non-English speaking respondents said it has been very easy to find work (compared to 26% of the general population). Conversely, 68% said it was very hard to find work compared to just 29% of the general population.

Community Leader Survey Responses

Enough Jobs With Livable Salary
One-quarter of respondents (26%) disagreed with the statement. Those most likely to strongly disagree were:

Those who rated their community "fair/poor" (50%) compared to those who said "good" (25%) or "excellent" (21%). The average rating for those who rated the community "fair/poor" was 2.7, indicating a lower level of agreement, compared to 3.6 for those who said "good" and 4.0 for those who said "excellent".

People Adequately Trained for Jobs in Community
Just over one in ten (14%) strongly agreed with this statement and an equal proportion (15%) strongly disagreed. Those who strongly agreed tended to be:

Respondents who rated their community "excellent" (24%) compared to those who said "good" or "fair/poor" (9% each). Those who rated their community highly also had a higher average rating (4.5) than did those with a lower opinion of their community (3.7).
Those who have worked in Snohomish County for 3-10 years gave an average rating of 4.3 compared to 3.4 for those working in the county less than 3 years.
Those who work for mid-size companies or organizations, 100-500 employees/members, gave a rating of 4.4 compared to 3.8 for those in companies or organizations of less than 100.

Home Heating is Affordable
Close to one-third of respondents (30%) disagreed with this statement. Those most likely to strongly disagree are:

Women (38%) compared to men (20%). Women also have a lower average rating, indicating a lower level of agreement (3.1) compared to the men (4.0).
Respondents who rated their community "fair/poor" (3.1) or "good" (3.2) also were more likely to disagree and therefore give a lower rating compared to those who rated their community "excellent" (4.0).

Expansion of Commercial/Industrial Business
More than two in five (43%) strongly agree with the statement and they were most likely to be:

Respondents who are 55-64 (54%) compared to those under 35 (29%). These older respondents also gave an average rating of 5.1 compared to 3.6 for the youngest respondents.
Men (49%) compared to women (37%). Men had an average rating of 4.9 compared to women 4.2.
Non-whites (58%) versus whites (40%). Non-whites had an average rating of 5.0 compared to 4.4 for whites.