Growth in Georgians’ income among slowest in U.S.

WASHINGTON — If you’re short on cash, this might be the bottom-line reason why: Personal income in Georgia rose at a lower rate than almost anywhere else in the country last year, and wage growth didn’t even come close to keeping pace with inflation, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Per capita personal income in Georgia rose by a mere 1.4 percent last year as employers cut jobs, eliminated bonuses and raises and forced some workers to take pay cuts.

Only three states — Nevada, Idaho and Arizona — had smaller increases in income, according to the Commerce Department.

Inflation, meanwhile, rose to 3.3 percent nationwide last year, up from 2.6 percent a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported. Georgia was one of only 13 states where the personal income growth rate was lower than the national inflation rate.

The numbers tell the story, but so do people like Helen Haney of Atlanta, who has been looking for a full-time job since last fall.

Haney was making $35 an hour as an executive assistant at Rheem Manufacturing Co., but lost her job last September. Unable to find a full-time job, she recently took a position with a temporary staffing company that pays $15 an hour.

“I was making a very, very nice salary,” said Haney, who has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and more than 17 years experience as an executive assistant. “Now … what I’m finding is that the job market is so bad that the jobs I do find are paying half what I used to make.”

Haney estimates that full-time executive assistant jobs at her experience level in Atlanta are paying about $20,000 less than they were a year ago.

Georgia’s personal income growth was hit hard by declines in the state’s large base of jobs in construction, manufacturing, transportation and retail, said David Lenze, an economist in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“Basically there are more negatives in Georgia than there are for the rest of the United States,” Lenze said.

Overall personal income growth nationwide slowed to 3.9 percent in 2008 from about 6 percent a year earlier.

Only Alaska, which benefited from a boost in oil and gas income tied to last year’s run-up in fuel prices, saw an increase in personal income growth.

Like Georgia, other states where personal income grew only slightly were hit hard by declines in the construction, real estate and manufacturing industries.

The Southeast overall was one of hardest-hit regions when it came to personal income growth last year. Only the far West fared worse as a region.

In the fourth quarter of last year alone, personal income nationally dropped by 0.2 percent, marking the first quarterly decline since the first quarter of 1994. Income fell in 41 states in the last three months of last year as the recession worsened.

Georgians’ fourth-quarter personal income was on par with the rest of the country, also declining by 0.2 percent, according to the Commerce Department.