ADAMS COUNTY PROFILE

Wages are an important economic indicator that contribute to an understanding of the community’s standard of living. Annual average pay varies over time and across industries. Annual average pay growth, adjusted for inflation, is shown in Figure 6-1 for both the county and the state.

The average annual pay and wage growth for workers in Adams County is lower than the state as a whole. In addition, real annual growth in pay was only two-tenths of one percent (0.2%) annually from 2000 to 2005, and slightly negative from 2005 to 2010 as a result of economic losses associated with the 2008 Great Recession. Since 2010, annual wage growth has averaged just under 2% annually.

Annual average pay is shown by sector and compared to the state in Figure 6-2:

As previously mentioned, “covered employment” does not represent all jobs because self-employment and some seasonal employment numbers are not included. Covered employment data is often used for analysis because it is reportedly quarterly with wage information and is compiled by the Federal government. “Total jobs” estimates come from non-Census statistics and estimate the number of self-employed and some seasonal agricultural workers. However, the data is only available annually, does not include industry level detail, and does not include wage data.

Covered employment represented an average of 80.8% of all Adams County jobs over the past 20 years. Because forecasts of “total jobs” are available at the county level, those estimates may also be used to project covered employment growth as a percent of total jobs for Adams County for the period 2025 through 2050. These projections and estimates are shown in the Figure 6-3:

As shown, total covered employment and total jobs are expected to reach approximately 300,000 and 350,000 respectively by 2050.