Household Incomes Drop in San Jose

San Jose has been unseated as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, according to a slew of government data. The city relinquishes its throne to previously second-ranked Washington D.C., which had a typical household earning $84,523 in income.

San Jose’s average household income dropped from $84,483 in 2009 to $83,944 last year, according to Census Bureau figures.

The report attributes San Jose’s drop to No. 2 in the rankings to the unemployment rate. In the month of August, San Jose had a 10 percent unemployment rate, while the Washington metro area came in at 6.1. Washington also benefited from high salaries for lawyers and federal employees.

While tech companies such as Apple and Google continue to stockpile cash and thrive in Silicon Valley, the D.C. area can thank several other factors for its position swap, including the more stable flow of federal dollars around the nation’s capital in comparison to other areas trying to recover from a general economic slump.

In addition to having an overall “shallower” recession, numbers stemming from the city’s teeming presence of contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Bethesda have contributed positively to the capital’s overall growth of median household income.

7 Comments

  1. If you build excessive low income housing……………they will come. pretty soon thats all that will be left in this once good city.I am positive that we will continue to drop in all pertinent ratings EXCEPT lowest staffed Public Safety , Increased violence city wide, most corrupt Mayor,City Manager& City Council.No new jobs,demoralized work force…………….Im sure the Mayor & Council could care less about any of this

  2. Whats wrong with this picture when San Jose has the second highest household income in the US – and most city employees make more than the average income themselves. I’m sure this makes their household income even higher.

    I bet if you exracted city employee’s income, we would drop considerably in the national rankings!

    Add in public employee benefits and I’m sure we are second to none!

    So Sad!

    Maybe we should start an OCCUPY SAN JOSE EMPLOYEE UNIONS!

    • shows you how much you are really informed-after the citizens vote in March(and we know they will because most of them, like you, are uninformed)-by the year 2018 we will have gone from $70,000 a year top step firefighter to $30,000 a year for TAKE HOME pay. That will lower the city rating for income a bit, I would think. It will also increase the number of employees that have to foreclose on their homes and increase the amount of employees that can’t afford to live in this city. I’m not sure you can even rent an apartment for that much-works out to $535 a week. A few more stats for you-our latest fire fighter academy started with 22-it is now down to NINE left-they are all going somewhere else where their futures are not in jeopardy. So much for attracting the brightest and best-they are going elsewhere. One more for you-answer me this-why would the mayor and city manager not vote for the almost 500 MILLION dollar savings to the city,the 5 unions offered regarding pensions? I thought this city was hurting! If you think the city is bargaining with the employees in good faith-you are living on another planet.

  3. Obviously, we need tax cuts in San Jose to boost our average income.  These sky high taxes have cost us our national ranking, and are also stifling our job growth.

  4. The answer is in the amount of low income housing building that continues to plague the city and it’s residents. Thanks Sam Licarrdo.  More services more needs more crime more loss of money to the city.  I think the city employees should strike!

  5. I don’t think you have the guts to Occupy the unions. Your to used to your life of safety and heat hot water warm clothing.  Wait till the time comes when they start to say not everyone has a warm place and a warm jacket.  You need to give back. I hope your first in line.

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