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Data shows Fayette County making up ground in poverty rate, household income

By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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Jim Stark has done his homework.

The executive director of Fayette County Community Action Agency looked over the American Community Survey one-year estimates for 2018 recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau showing the area’s latest numbers measuring poverty, incomes and other socioeconomic snapshots.

Stark likes what he sees for Fayette County, which has long struggled with high poverty rates.

“The trend is good,” Stark says.

According to the data, Fayette County’s poverty rate decreased 4% from 17.6% in 2017 to 13.6% in 2018, a drop much steeper than that of surrounding counties, and a welcome fall from its 21.1% rate in 2010.

“It’s a major drop,” Stark said.

Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

Encouraging trends

Fayette County’s median household income shot up from $44,184 in 2017 to $52,984 in 2018, again outpacing surrounding counties and furthering the distance from its 2010 total of $35,750.

And Fayette County’s civilian labor force ticked up from 58,571 to 61,380 in 2018, a 4.8% increase.

But although the trends are encouraging, they should be interpreted with some caution.

Stark prefers referencing the 2013-17 five-year estimates from the American Community Survey, which have smaller margins of error.

For example, the 2018 one-year estimate’s margin of error for Fayette County’s median household income is plus or minus $3,412, greater than the 2013-17 five-year estimate’s margin of error of plus or minus $1,212. The 2013-17 five-year estimate for Fayette County’s median household income was $41,632. Data for each release of five-year estimates are collected over a five-year period ending Dec. 31 of the reference year.

Bob Shark, executive director of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, touted the importance of contextualizing the data for Fayette County.

“It’s interesting to see the ACS data from Fayette County, but it’s important to compare our numbers against other benchmarks to get a true picture of what the numbers mean,” Shark said.

There are some 2018 numbers that don’t paint quite as rosy of a picture for Fayette County.

The county’s percentage of households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, 22.82%, more than doubled the nationwide clip of 11.33%.

Even given its steep drop last year, the county’s 2018 poverty rate of 13.6% was the highest in the seven-county Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area, including Washington County (8.5%) and Westmoreland County (9%). And Fayette’s 2018 median household income ranked second-lowest in the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area, lagging behind Washington County ($63,251) and Westmoreland County ($58,471) and placing ahead of only Armstrong County.

Fayette County’s 2018 unemployment rate of 5.6% was the highest in the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area as well, well above Washington County’s 4.3% and Westmoreland County’s 3.6%.

“(W)hat may first appear to be a positive trend may not be an accurate interpretation when you look at how we measure up against others,” Shark said.

But the numbers give cause for optimism as well.

The 48.2% rise in Fayette County’s median household income from 2010 to 2018 easily outpaced nationwide growth and increases in all other Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area counties, according to one-year estimates for those years, with Washington County enjoying the second-highest increase (32.8%).

Fayette County’s poverty rate declined by a much greater percentage from 2010 to 2018, 7.5%, than any other county in the metropolitan statistical area as well.

So Fayette County appears to be making progress in closing the gap in those key economic categories.

Stark attributes this to a growth in available jobs and employers raising wages to attract employees.

“The job market is getting tighter,” Stark said.

Stark didn’t report any huge drops in need across the many social services that FCCAA provides. He said there’s been a small drop in families relying on the FCCAA Food Bank but expects that neediness will heighten over the winter. FCCAA is still getting “a lot” of requests for housing assistance as well.

But Stark hopes that Fayette County’s statistical economic momentum doesn’t stop.

“I’d like to see the trend continue,” Stark said.

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