According to Brookings Institute, “The nation’s GDP has grown in every quarter since the middle of 2009, and the labor market has added jobs in every month since September 2010. However, GDP and job growth on their own are not sufficient markers of economic health.”
In general, the Brookings Metro Monitor 2020 found growth, prosperity and overall inclusion in Very Large metro areas at higher rates than Large and Midsized metro areas. How did the Kennewick-Richland Metro Area, consisting of everything within Benton and Franklin Counties, score? First, a brief explanation.
Brookings Metro Monitor Key performance indicators are:
- Growth: measuring total jobs, Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP), and number of jobs at young firms;
- Prosperity: measuring productivity, average annual wage, and the standard of living;
- Inclusion: measuring employment rate, median earnings, and the relative poverty rate;
- Racial Inclusion: measuring employment rate gap of white people and people of color, median earnings of white people and people of color, and the relative poverty rate of white people and people of color;
- Geographic Inclusion: measuring employment rate gap of the top and bottom neighborhoods, median household income in the top and bottom neighborhoods, and the relative poverty rate of the top and bottom neighborhoods.
The three different metro classes by population are:
- Very large: populations of more than 1 million residents;
- Large : 500,000 - 1 million residents;
- Midsized : 250,000 - 500,000 residents. The Kennewick-Richland Metro Area was here having an estimated 296,224 residents during 2018.
Two different time periods are considered:
- 1-year: 2017-2018 reflecting recent changes;
- 10-years: 2008-2018 reflecting changes since the Great Recession.
Not wanting to give everything away, instead we’ll report growth or decline in key performance indicators for each time period.
The majority of key performance indicators during the 1-year time period showed increases.The 10-year time period still showed the majority key performance indicators increasing, but fewer than the 1-year span.
After you’ve had a look, keep scrolling down because two additional dashboards are available.
The first allows for a direct comparison of any single indicator to any five metro areas in a line graph.
The second is a U.S. map view of any single indicator for all metro areas (with filters for metro size), each with its national rank.
