Santa Clara County Average Wage Ranked #2 Nationwide

According to the Bureau of Income Analysis news release as of 2006, the personal income and per capita personal income reached the top for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area, ranking at number three for cities in the United States. According to the San Jose Business Journal, this has grown to make Santa Clara County the lead in the country of wages in the third quarter of 2007.

“In average wage, Santa Clara County’s $76,562 in 2006 puts it ahead of every other county in California and second in the nation…The only one of the country’s 3,111 counties with a higher wage per job is New York County at $90,555,” says Pete Carey of Mercury News.

However, “there’s a hitch. It costs more to live here,” Carey goes on to say. Wages might therefore be linked to a direct increase in living costs.

An annual Bay Area Council Poll was released in April 2008, revealing that more people feel they are worse off financially now than those who feel their situation has improved since 2002. A Field Research poll indicates that 22 percent of Bay Area residents polled feel that the economy is the biggest problem the Bay Area will face.

The San Jose Business Journal points out that the economy even “topped worries about transportation, housing, and crime.”