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State Patterns of Occupational Earnings: Implications for Long-Term GrowthUniversity of Nebraska, Lincoln This article focuses on the role of real and money wages in a states growth (macro) and location (micro) prospects. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey for 2000 were used first to indirectly estimate state cost-of-living (COL) indices. These COL indices are the major contribution of this article. The methodology employed, in combination with the current 6-month reporting cycle for the OES, should eventually allow the computation of accurate inflation indices for states and regions. By applying these COL indices to OES-reported money wages by occupation, estimates of real wages are derived. Likely growth scenarios, both in terms of total employment and for certain key occupations, are investigated under two assumptions: first, that workers positively respond, by entry and migration, to those areas having above-average real wages, and second, that capital flows respond to below-average money wages.
Key Words: state cost of living money and real wages by occupation regional growth
Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1,
34-48 (2007) |
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