Oregon Public Broadcasting

Friday’s national unemployment report gave hope that the recession may be easing.  But the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that personal income growth across the country has slowed.

And as central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports, in Bend, per capita income has actually declined.

The Bend metro area, including all of Deschutes County, was the only part of the state to see a drop in personal income per capita. But that statistic is actually a bit deceptive.

David Lenze: “With respect to Bend, the growth in personal income was less than the growth in population.”

David Lenze is an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

He says his office tabulates all the individual wages, social security, and stock dividends and then compares them region-by-region.

Lenze says Bend’s total income actually grew by 2.8-percent.

David Lenze: “One of the items that we count in personal income is unemployment compensation and that has, of course, been rising very, very rapidly. And that tends to buffer the lost incomes.”

Portland’s income per person grew by 1.5 percent, and the Salem metro area saw the biggest income growth per capita in the state – 2.2 percent.