Storm-hit metros top personal income growth
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Metropolitan areas where residents were reeling in hurricane settlements — New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss. — led the nation again in personal income growth in 2007, a federal agency reported today.
Lake Charles (11 percent) and Houma (11 percent) also were among the fastest-growing cities for per capita personal income growth in the report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. New Orleans rose 15 percent; Pascagoula, 17 percent; and Gulfport, nearly 17 percent, on a per capita basis, which accounts for the effects of population change compared with personal income alone.
Per capita personal income grew at a more modest 6 percent in Baton Rouge, on par with such cities as Boston and Charleston, S.C. The national average for per capita personal income growth in 2007 was 5.2 percent.
Personal income includes income from all sources, not just jobs, and hurricane assistance programs that grew quickly beginning in 2006 swelled the income of coastal residents, the bureau said. In addition, the growth of transportation services supporting offshore oil and gas platforms pushed Houma into the Top 10. Construction growth in Houma and Lake Charles also helped boost their per capita personal income level, the bureau said.
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