people. Gross domestic product and disposable income Often considered as a resource well by the government of Quebec, Bas-Saint-Laurent possesses a strong divide between its four industrial centers, Rimouski, Rivière-du-Loup, La Pocatière and Matane, as these benefited from the growth of the knowledge and high tech industry to assure their development and the smaller communities outside of these industrial centers often depending on a single industry from sectors in difficulty. The Institut de la statistique du Québec reports that the gross domestic product of the region was of 5 billions in 2009, registering a growth of 1.3% compared to the previous year. The growth of the service economy is the main factor in this growth, and it now represents 70% of the regional economy, a figure close to the 71.6% of Quebec as a whole. In the good production sector, traditional industries register a sharp decline, as forestry declines by 25%, while the industries transforming wood and the paper industry declined by more than 12%. The GDP per capita of the region was at $30,376 in 2010, which puts Bas-Saint-Laurent at the 13th place among the 17 Administrative regions of Quebec. The disposable and discretionary income was at $29,069. Excluding the amount taken by direct taxation and non-wage labour costs, the income per capita is at $23,044, the smallest income in Quebec after the neighbouring region of Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Each inhabitant of Bas-Saint-Laurent receives an average of $7,021 from the state, an amount superior the average of $5878 in Quebec. The unemployment rate being above Quebec's average and the larger share of the population eligible to receive benefits from the government program of Old Age Security and Retraite Quebec explain this more generous welfare. Statistics on the regional level do hide significant differences between the two most urbanized RCMs, Rimouski-Neigette and Rivière-du-Loup and the six others, who are more rural. The average disposable income in the RCM of Rimouski being $25,165, this is 20% more than in the RCMs of Témiscouata ($20,306) and La Matapédia ($20,603). Employment Even Bas-Saint-Laurent is located at the 13th place among the 17 regions of Quebec in GDP per capita, it sports an unemployment rate of 8.0% in 2011, a figure in decline of 2% compared to the previous year. The share of the workforce in the population is at 58.7% and the employment rate is at 54.1%, a figure which has risen by 0.5% since