#3 - More and more of us don’t have conventional jobs.

We know that many people are punching time clocks, filing paperwork, selling products or harvesting crops across the West. But it might surprise you to learn how much of today’s personal income is not related to present employment.

Non-labor income is now the second largest source of income (after services) in the West. Non-labor income consists of dividends, interest and rent (also referred to by some economists as money earned from investments) and transfer payments. Transfer payments include retirement benefits, health care and disability-insurance payments, Medicare and Medicaid, welfare, and other government payments to individuals.

As the map below indicates, non-labor income can amount to more than 60 cents of every dollar earned in a county today. West-wide, non-labor sources account for 30 percent of total personal income and 21 percent of the growth in real income over the last three decades.

As the population of the West ages, it is logical that retirement-related sources of income also rise. Nationwide, as well as in the West, more than 60 percent of transfer payments are age-related (retirement, disability, insurance payments, and Medicare).

Non-labor income can help diversify a local economy and is generally less vulnerable to local fluctuations in business cycles. For many communities non-labor income is the only sizeable source of income keeping a place alive; in others, non-labor sources of income have boosted per capita income well above average earnings per job. People with non-labor income often provide other benefits to a community through their personal efforts, such as volunteer and community service work.