State's income growth tanks
Tie for last place blamed on education weakness
Tennessee joined long-suffering Midwestern states with painfully slow income growth last year, as manufacturing job losses and other factors created its biggest gap in income growth compared with the nation in seven years.
It was an about-face from the 1990s when Tennessee's gains exceeded the nation's.
Tennessee tied for last place with Arizona with a per capita income growth rate of 3.4 percent. National per capita income rose 5.2 percent between 2006 and 2007.
Among the factors blamed by economists for the poor showing is a weak educational system that has failed to attract more high-paying jobs to the state.
"I do think that the low levels of educational attainment may contribute to slow earnings growth,'' University of Tennessee economist Matt Murray said.
Job growth is slowing while the state's population continues to increase, which contributed to the poor ranking, economists said.
Overall, Tennessee's income growth has been slowing over the last several years after big increases during the 1980s and early 1990s, when the state was attracting relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs. The state has shed 33,100 manufacturing jobs during the last two years, according to Middle Tennessee State University economist David Penn. Those job losses aren't being replaced by enough higher-paying jobs in other sectors.
Contact Naomi Snyder at 259-8284 or nsnyder@tenness
