America’s economy has enjoyed a steady solid growth rate for over 10 years. The question is, where, how and what does the next decade look like?
According to a recent Bloomberg article, most of the wealth that the nation has generated has been from just 1% of counties. A recent report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that a staggering 32.3% of US GDP was generated by 31 US counties. What is perhaps even more odd about this statistic is that last year those 31 counties had only 26.1% of employed Americans.
So it seems that the bones of the US economy is becoming further concentrated in larger cities and by the coasts. Rural counties are dying down which could have implications for labor mobility and infrastructure spending.
But who exactly are these people who are bolstering the economy today? According to a recent article in Yahoo Finance it is the immigrants who are making this happen:
“Over the last decade, 42% of the net growth in U.S. population, and 54% of the net growth in the workforce, can be attributed to immigration. During the same period, the birth rate of native-born Americans has decreased, and the death rate has increased, due to aging. Immigrants now comprise roughly 15% of the total U.S. population. And because they tend to be younger than native-born Americans, immigrants now comprise about 17% of the U.S. workforce.”
With unemployment back at to its lowest since 1969 and a 3.1 percent increase in average hourly wages from 2018, wherever its coming from and whoever’s providing it, the employment situation in America is positive.