California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The Conference Board released a study illustrating that nearly 78 percent of all discretionary
income in the nation is held by households earning more than $100,000.  Some 73 million U.S.
households now have discretionary income, up from about 57 million in 2002. The percent of
the U.S. population with discretionary income has increased from 52 percent in 2002 to nearly
64 percent in 2006.

Total discretionary income in the U.S. topped $1.7 trillion in 2006 and it is defined as households
whose spendable income exceeds that held by households with similar demographic features.

The region with the wealthiest concentration of households is New England (including Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont). About 63 percent of
households have discretionary income, with an average amount of $27,337. The regions with
the lowest discretionary income are in the mid-west (including Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,
Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota). Average household discretionary income
in this region is $20,749.

But it is California that is the state with the largest number of households with discretionary income
at 8 million making up nearly 55 percent of the total households in the state and nearly 11 percent
in the nation.  These households hold $224.7 billion in total discretionary income. California is
followed by Texas, Florida and New York

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.