Economists at Chapman University expect total personal income in California to exceed $3 trillion in 2021, a 7.1 percent boost from 2020.
The $3.013 trillion figure predicted by the economists, if realized, will be 20 percent higher than the $2.514 trillion total personal income Californians earned just three years ago, in 2018.
To put it into perspective, the total amount of personal income Californians are projected to earn this year is higher than the total economy of the United Kingdom (UK) was in 2019, when its GDP was $2.8 trillion.
California has slightly more than 40 million people. The UK has more than 66 million people and is one of the most advanced economies of the world. London, England is the world’s hub for insurance and is the European center of finance.
Even so, just the personal income in California—which excludes company profits—is poised to be greater than the UK’s entire economy.
The rising wealth of Californians is also occurring despite the fact that total payroll employment in 2021 is expected still to be substantially lower than it was four years ago.
California’s total payroll employment is expected to rise this year to 16.6 million, up from the pandemic-ravaged 16.1 million level of 2020. The 2017 figure was 16.8 million. Total payroll employment was 17.4 million in 2019.
The latest financial and employment projections were included in Chapman’s A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research June economics and business review.
The report included a verbal presentation in which researchers and academics who said 260,000 Californians moved out of the state last year. University research showed the exodus was likely driven by California’s high number of regulations. It has 360,000 regulatory statutes, compared to about 100,000 statutes in other states.
