WATERLOO REGION - It's unsurprising and it's unsettling. Local incomes barely kept pace with inflation while factories downsized or closed, new census findings reveal.

Between 2005 and 2015, this region tumbled out of the top 10 in household income in Canada. Local income grew just 1.4 per cent after inflation over 10 years, according to data released Wednesday from the 2016 census.

That's far below income growth of 3.8 per cent in Ontario and 10.8 per cent across the nation during the same period.

Statistics Canada blames an economy that saw Ontario lose almost one in three manufacturing jobs over the same years. The grim story that emerges from the numbers is a lost decade in which local families struggled to hang on while good-paying jobs disappeared.

The way forward is more education, economic promoters agree: better-educated children, better-educated adults, and a commitment to lifelong learning and retraining.

"We've really got to increase our skill base in terms of our workers," said Murray Gamble, a Breslau business leader who helps direct the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation. "A career is going to be a continuing learning process from here on in."

"Lifelong learning is going to be the way forward," Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky said. "People are going to have to zig and zag throughout their career. They will have no choice."

"Unless you have a decent level of education, there is no future for you in a modern economy like Canada's, period. There just isn't," said Larry Smith, University of Waterloo economist and forecaster.

But more education is not a natural fit for a community that despite its universities has long provided good jobs to people without much schooling.

"We don't nearly have what I'll call the average skill and education level that quite frankly we probably need going forward," Gamble said.

"Waterloo Region isn't particularly well-educated. And I think that observation is now starting to come and haunt us," Smith said. "Generally speaking, people with education get paid more than people without education."

Smith sees a cultural challenge in persuading more local families to prize education. "How do you get 10,000 parents to approach education differently?" he said.

Statistics Canada attributes the manufacturing decline to factors including "technological change, globalization, lower exchange rates and low productivity."

Gamble points to factory automation, saying companies get the most out of replacing higher-paying jobs. "It's a big trend and it's going to accelerate," he said. "I'm not saying it's a good thing but it's a reality."

Here are highlights of the impact over a decade after accounting for inflation:

•Household incomes in Waterloo fell 1.6 per cent to a median of $83,045 in 2015 (median is the midpoint of all incomes).

•Kitchener saw a small increase of 1.5 per cent to a household median of $70,774.

•Cambridge household incomes stalled at a median of $77,757, up 0.7 per cent.

Jaworsky sees seniors and students as factors in declining income in his city. There are more seniors than ever and they usually have fixed incomes. Students aren't typically rich. He argues also that new entrepreneurs need more time to boost incomes.

"We have emerging and ever-increasing social needs," he said, calling on governments to support social services. "We're going to have people who are on harder times."

There is a silver lining. Local income remains relatively strong partly because it was so high a decade ago. A typical household in Waterloo Region had an income of $77,530 in 2015 compared to a typical Ontario household at $74,287.

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But the last 10 years were unkind to this region and to southwest Ontario. Household incomes plunged 6.4 per cent in Windsor and 2.1 per cent in London, the biggest metropolitan areas in Canada to see real incomes tumble.

Compare this to places such as Saskatchewan and Newfoundland where incomes surged by up to 36 per cent as resource-based economies flourished. This surge may now be tempered as resource sectors struggle.

By 2015, five more communities vaulted past this region in household income: Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, St. John's and Toronto. They joined five communities previously ahead: Oshawa, Ottawa, Calgary, Guelph and Barrie.