Blog | National economic growth at booming 5 percent. What does that mean for Myrtle Beach and its nation-low average wages?
We learned today that the economy grew at a rapid 5 percent clip during the third quarter, a figure not seen since 2003.
Read more here:
Economy grows at fastest pace in a decade
And while expectations are that the fourth quarter can’t be growing that fast, too, most indicators suggest that a robust growth rate has continued.
That means 2014 is the best year for overall job creation since 1999, the deficit has been cut by about two thirds since 2009 and the U.S. economy is far outpacing most other large economies in the world. What does that mean for the Myrtle Beach area?
According to an analysis in the Wall Street Journal, most large counties - including Horry - have been experiencing good wage and job growth.
From the piece:
Employment and wages grew in the vast majority of large U.S. counties through the first half of the year, a broad improvement that masks the unevenness of the economic expansion.
More than 92% of large counties recorded year-over-year gains in employment through the end of June from a year earlier, and 90% saw average weekly wages increase, according to Labor Department data released Thursday . The nation’s 340 largest counties have 75,000 or more workers.
The gains are consistent with the national unemployment rate dropping by more than a percentage point during that time and steady hiring, especially among private-sector employees.
And this:
Over the past decade, wage gains have been uneven in the U.S. From 2004 and 2013, one-third of all U.S. counties have seen their pay decline, when the figures are adjusted for inflation , according to separate Labor Department figures. Gains were the strongest in energy-rich areas and the weakest in the industrial Midwest, Southern California and parts of the South.
What does it say about the Myrtle Beach area?
Employment in our area grew at 3.2 percent while wages ticked up by 2 percent.
Those numbers were OK, middle-of-the-road out of the 340 counties measured.
But given that our average weekly wages - $548 - remain the lowest in the country of any big county, we need even more jobs to put more pressure on wages so all of us could have deeper pockets sometime soon.
A rapidly growing national economy can only help.
This story was originally published December 23, 2014 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Blog | National economic growth at booming 5 percent. What does that mean for Myrtle Beach and its nation-low average wages?."