Economic Overviews

The largest sector in Monterey County, California is Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, employing 58,514 workers. The next-largest sectors in the region are Accommodation and Food Services (23,674 workers) and Health Care and Social Assistance (22,402). High location quotients (LQs) indicate sectors in which a region has high concentrations of employment compared to the national average. The sectors with the largest LQs in the region are Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (LQ = 21.13), Public Administration (1.43), and Accommodation and Food Services (1.24).

Pandemic Losses to California Farms and Ranches

Pandemic-related losses to California farms, ranches and agricultural businesses will range between $5.9 billion and $8.6 billion this year, according to an economic study released in June. The analysis says the state’s agricultural sector has already suffered $2 billion in losses so far, from disrupted markets and rising production costs related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Read more…

Filling the Lifeboats: Getting Americans Back to Work in the Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has done something no foreign power, economic recession, or natural disaster could ever do: it has brought the American job market as close as it has ever come to a sudden, shuddering halt. And simply lifting social distancing restrictions isn’t going to be enough to restart it again. Read more…

Source: Burning Glass Technologies, July 2020

Living Wage Calculation for Monterey County, California

Source: MIT

The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual must earn to support their family, if they are the sole provider and are working full-time (2080 hours per year). All values are per adult in a family unless otherwise noted. The state minimum wage is the same for all individuals, regardless of how many dependents they may have. The poverty rate is typically quoted as gross annual income. We have converted it to an hourly wage for the sake of comparison. Read more…