Description: The Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the United States
Department of Commerce, publishes the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) annually.
REIS is distributed on CD-ROM and some of its data are also accessible on the above web site. REIS concentrates
on broad income and employment data. REIS measures jobs more broadly than most other sources such as
BLS' ES202 program or its metropolitan area only Current Employment Statistics (nonagricultural employment).
REIS Provides the most readily accessible long-term database of county level personal income and employment.
REIS jobs data include agricultural and nonagricultural jobs; public as well as private employment; self-employment
as well as wage and salary employment; and workers not covered by unemployment insurance as well as those
covered. Along with the strength of broad and consistent measurement of employment and income, REIS has
the shortcoming of only annual updates that are about 2 years behind other, narrower measures of jobs
and income.
Personal Income broadly measures income earned by an area's residents whether that income was earned within or outside that area.
Income earned by workers who commute to another county would be included. Income earned within the county
by other counties' residents would be excluded. Personal income is the sum of resident earnings by place
of work less personal payments for social insurance such as social security and medicare taxes, plus
transfer payments such as social security and veterans benefits, plus dividends, interest and rent.
Personal Income is an indicator of the size of a local area economy. Income primarily may rise
as a result of increased economic production, income earning population or price levels (inflation).
Increased transfer payments or nonlabor income such as interest may contribute to rising income as
well. Rises related to inflation generally do not increase living standards.
Wage and Salary by industry are by place of work. Wage and salary per job are, therefore, not adjusted
to reflect residence of the worker. Self-employment income is primarily by place of residence, not
work. Earnings by industry and by job (a combination of wage and salary and self-employment income)
are, therefore, primarily by place of work.
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