Earnings Per Employee
Description:
Earnings per employee is the most comprehensive proxy measure for productivity for counties. (No true measure of productivity is available for states or substate areas.) Earnings per employee is calculated by dividing earnings by total employment.
Earnings account for the majority of personal income; the category includes wage and salary disbursements, proprietors’ income, and supplements to wages and salaries (employer contributions for employee pensions and insurance). While earnings are estimated quarterly by state, only annual figures are available by county.
Total employment includes an estimate of the number of proprietors as well as total wage and salary employment. Only annual estimates are available.
The latest current dollar earnings per employee figure by county is presented on Arizona Indicators, along with data for the same year for the United States, the U.S. metro average, the U.S. nonmetro average, and Arizona. The figure for Arizona also is expressed as a percentage of the national average. Counties within a metropolitan area are presented as a percentage of the U.S. metro average; the remaining counties are compared to the national nonmetro average. A history of Arizona’s current dollar figure as a percentage of the national average is presented back to 1969. In addition, the inflation-adjusted percent change in earnings per employee is displayed for each area, beginning with 1970. The data are inflation adjusted using the gross domestic product implicit price deflator (GDP deflator).
Data Source:
Annual data are from the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. State and national data are reported nine months after the end of a year. The data can be accessed from http://www.bea.gov/regional/spi/; earnings and total employment are included in table SA04. County data are released 16 months after the end of a year, accessible at http://www.bea.gov/regional/reis/; earnings and total employment are included in table CA04.
The GDP deflator is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis: http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Selected=Y (Table 1.1.9).
Data Quality Comments:
Some of the inputs to the calculation of earnings by state and county are estimated. The employment figures also are estimates. No distinction is made between full-time and part-time employment.
Earnings Per Employee, 2009
Visualization Notes:
Reasonable targets for Arizona are for the state’s earnings per employee to be near the national average, for the larger metro counties to have a figure near the U.S. metro average, and for the nonmetro counties to have a figure equal to the nonmetro average.
The most recent data for earnings per employee by county are for 2009, a recessionary year. These estimates remain subject to revision. The preliminary data indicate that earnings per employee in 2009 was less than the U.S. metro average in each of the state’s seven metropolitan counties. Four of the eight nonmetro counties had a figure in excess of the U.S. nonmetro average.
Earnings Per Employee as Percentages of the National Averages, 2009
Visualization Notes:
Among Arizona’s seven metropolitan counties, Maricopa was the only one with an earnings per employee figure that approached the U.S. metro average in 2009. Each of the others had a figure at least 17 percent below the metro average. In contrast, among the eight nonmetro counties, the lowest figure was only 6 percent below the U.S. nonmetro average, in Gila County.
Earnings Per Employee in Arizona as a Percentage of the National Average
Visualization Notes:
A reasonable target is for Arizona’s earnings per employee to be near the national average. This was the case during the early 1970s when the state’s figure was within 1 percent of the national average. Earnings per employee in Arizona was within 5 percent of the national average in each year from 1969 through 1982, but has not been within 6 percent in any year since 1984. During the 2000s, Arizona’s figure has been between 6 and 8 percent below average, with the 2010 figure 7.7 percent less.
Earnings Per Employee, Inflation-Adjusted Percent Change
Visualization Notes:
The inflation-adjusted percent change in earnings per employee is cyclical, with declines or small gains common during recessions and larger increases usually occurring during expansions. Arizona generally outperforms the nation by a small margin during expansions, but posts larger decreases during recessions. Arizona’s change was negative in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and was less than the U.S. average in three of the four years from 2007 through 2010.
Data Source
Annual data are from the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. State and national data are reported nine months after the end of a year. The data can be accessed from http://www.bea.gov/regional/spi/; earnings and total employment are included in table SA04. County data are released 16 months after the end of a year, accessible at http://www.bea.gov/regional/reis/; earnings and total employment are included in table CA04.
The GDP deflator is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis: http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Selected=Y (Table 1.1.9).
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