Household Income Spending patterns

I am getting an unusual result on an analysis that I do frequently. For a given county, I enter $10,000,000 as a Household Income change for three different income categories (typically, 75-100, 100-150, and 150 and higher). I then download the employment figures generated by the $10,000,000 in new household income and use the resulting ratios. Usually, the total jobs generated by the $10,000,000 doesn't vary THAT much by income category - it's within a few jobs. I ran the same analysis using 2011 data for Alameda County. For the 75-100k income category, I am getting 62.2 jobs per $10,000,000 in HH income. For the 100-150k income category, I am getting 42.5 jobs. What is causing this huge difference, when typically the numbers are so much closer? For example, I ran the same analysis on 2009 Alameda County data and the results were within one job of each other. Thank you. Harriet
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  • Hello, The main cause for the difference appears to be the savings rate, which in 2011 is just 6% for the 75-100K group but is 29% and 30%, respectively, for the 100-150K and 150K+ groups. All else equal, the higher the savings, rate, the lower the percent of income spent on commodities, and the lower the impacts. In 2009, each of these 3 groups had the same savings rate (16%), which is why their impacts were so similar. In the IxC SAM (Explore > Social Accounts > IxC Social Accounts Matrix), the Household columns' payments to the Capital row represent net savings, which includes paying down debt (i.e., principle). So the savings rate can be calculated by dividing the household column's payment to the Capital row by the column total. Households receive income from Industries and Institutions. With this income, households buy goods and services, pay taxes, and save for the future. We have information about income, consumption, and tax payments. Savings is the difference between income and spending and serves as a balancing element.
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