News Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, MONDAY, June 1, 2009
BEA 09-21

Personal Income and Outlays, April 2009

April 2009
Personal income increased $58.2 billion, or 0.5 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI)
increased $121.8 billion, or 1.1 percent, inApril, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $5.4 billion, or 0.1 percent.  In March,
personal income decreased $25.9 billion, or 0.2 percent, DPI increased $8.2 billion, or 0.1
percent, and PCE decreased $33.0 billion, or 0.3 percent, based on revised estimates.  The pattern of
changes in income reflect, in part, the pattern of reduced personal current taxes and increased
government social benefit payments associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

                                        2008            2009
                                        Dec.            Jan.            Feb.            Mar.            Apr.
                                                       (Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars       -0.2             0.0            -0.2            -0.2             0.5
Disposable personal income:
 Current dollars                       -0.1             1.5             0.0             0.1             1.1
 Chained (2000) dollars                 0.4             1.3            -0.4             0.1             1.1
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars                       -1.1             1.0             0.4            -0.3            -0.1
 Chained (2000) dollars                -0.6             0.7             0.1            -0.3            -0.1

Real disposable income increased 1.1 percent in April, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent in March.
Real PCE decreased 0.1 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.3 percent.

The April change in disposable personal income (DPI)  personal income less personal current taxes  was
boosted as a result of provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Provisions of
the Act reduced personal current taxes and increased government social benefit payments.  Excluding these
special factors, which are discussed more fully below, disposable personal income increased $77.1 billion,
or 0.7 percent, in April, following a decrease of $8.7 billion, or 0.1 percent, in March.

                                Wages and salaries

Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $1.3 billion in April, compared with a decrease of $39.1 billion
in March.  Private wages and salaries had been reduced by an adjustment of $20.0 billion at an annual rate in
January, in February, and in March to reflect smaller-than-usual bonus payments.  This type of irregular payment
is not accounted for in the primary monthly source data for wages and salaries.  This adjustment to the months
of the first quarter was not carried forward in the estimates of wage and salary disbursements for April and
subsequent months.  Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $11.4 billion, compared with a decrease of
$15.6 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $3.7 billion, compared with a decrease of $8.1 billion.
Services-producing industries' payrolls increased $10.1 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $23.5 billion.
Government wage and salary disbursements increased $4.4 billion compared with an increase of $3.3 billion.

                                Other personal income

Supplements to wages and salaries increased $4.7 billion in April, compared with an increase of $1.9 billion in March.

Proprietors' income increased $4.5 billion in April, in contrast to a decrease of $7.5 billion in March.
Farm proprietors' income increased $3.8 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $0.3 billion.  Nonfarm proprietors'
income increased $0.7 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $7.2 billion.

Rental income of persons increased $2.7 billion in April, in contrast to a decrease of $3.2 billion in March.
Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) decreased $2.7 billion,
compared with a decrease of $20.5 billion.

Personal current transfer receipts increased $45.7 billion, compared with an increase of $34.3 billion.
Provisions of the Federal Additional Compensation Program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009 boosted the level of personal current transfer receipts by $11.8 billion at an annual rate in
April and $5.7 billion in March.  The provision provides an additional $25 per week unemployment payment.

Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal income --  was
unchanged in April, following a decrease of $5.0 billion in March.

                                Personal current taxes and disposable personal income

Personal current taxes decreased $63.6 billion in April, compared with a decrease of $34.1 billion in March.
The Making Work Pay Credit provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 reduced personal
current taxes $49.8 billion at an annual rate in April and $11.2 billion in March.  The provision allows a
refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing
joint returns.  (The credit is subject to income limitations.)

Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased $121.8 billion,
or 1.1 percent, in April, compared with an increase of $8.2 billion, or 0.1 percent in March.

                                Personal outlays and personal saving

Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments -- decreased
$9.7 billion inApril, compared with a decrease of $33.5 billion in March.  PCE decreased $5.4 billion,
compared with a decrease of $33.0 billion.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays - was $620.2  billion in April, compared with $488.7 billion
in March. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 5.7 percent in April, compared
with 4.5 percent in March.  For a comparison of personal saving in BEAs national income and product accounts
with personal saving in the Federal Reserve Boards flow of funds accounts and data on changes in net worth,
go to /national/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp.

                                Real DPI and real PCE

Real DPI -- DPI adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 1.1 percent in April, compared with an
increase of 0.1 percent in March.

Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- decreased 0.1 percent in April, compared with a
decrease of 0.3 percent in March.  Purchases of durable goods decreased 0.7 percent, compared with a
decrease of 0.9 percent.  Purchases of motor vehicles and parts accounted for most of the decrease in
durable goods in April.  Purchases of nondurable goods decreased 0.7 percent in April, compared with
a decrease of 1.0 percent in March.  Purchases of services increased 0.2 percent, compared with an
increase of 0.1 percent.

PCE price index -- The price index for PCE increased 0.1 percent in April, in contrast to a decrease of
less than 0.1 percent in March.  The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.3 percent,
compared with an increase of 0.2 percent.

                                Revisions

Estimates of personal income and DPI have been revised for October through March; estimates of PCE have
been revised for January through March.  Changes in personal income, current-dollar and chained (2000)
dollar DPI, and current-dollar and chained (2000) dollar PCE for February and March -- revised and
as published in last month's release -- are shown below.

For October through December, the revisions to wages and salaries reflected the incorporation of
newly available BLS tabulations for fourth-quarter private wages and salaries from the quarterly census
of employment and wages.  Wages and salaries were revised down for all three months.  Revisions to
personal current taxes and to contributions for government social insurance reflected the revisions to
wages and salaries and the incorporation of revised federal budget projections.

                                                                Change from preceding month
                                        February                                  March
                                        Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised
                                       (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)      (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)
Personal Income:
 Current dollars.....................  -24.3      -29.0     -0.2       -0.2      -34.4      -25.9     -0.3       -0.2
Disposable personal income:
 Current dollars.....................   0.2       -5.0       0.0        0.0      -1.8        8.2       0.0        0.1
 Chained (2000) dollars..............  -29.8      -34.5     -0.3       -0.4       0.7        9.7       0.0        0.1
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars.....................   39.1       39.1      0.4        0.4      -24.2      -33.0     -0.2       -0.3
 Chained (2000) dollars..............   4.4        4.2       0.1        0.1      -17.9      -24.4     -0.2       -0.3

This news release presents revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions
for government social insurance for October through December 2008 (fourth quarter).  These estimates reflect newly
available fourth-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the quarterly census of employment and wages from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

                                Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts

As part of the comprehensive (or benchmark) revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs), revised
estimates of personal income and outlays will be released along with preliminary estimates for June 2009 on
August 4, 2009. More information on the comprehensive revision is available on BEAs Web site at
www.bea.gov/national/an1.htm, including a link to the article in the March 2009 issue of the Survey of Current Business
that discussed the changes in definitions and presentations that will be implemented in the revision and to an article
in the May Survey that described changes in statistical methods.  The September Survey will contain an article that
describes the results of the revision in detail.  The Web site also contains links to redesigned PCE table
stubs; other revised NIPA table stubs and press release stubs will be available in June.

BEAs national, international, regional, and industry estimates; the Survey of Current Business; and BEA news
releases are available without charge on BEAs Web site at www.bea.gov.  By visiting the site, you can also subscribe
to receive free e-mail summaries of BEA releases and announcements.

                                *          *          *

Next release  June 26, 2009 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for May.

________________________

NOTE. - - Monthly estimates are expressed at seasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise specified.
Month-to-month dollar changes are differences between these published estimates.  Month-to-month percent
changes are calculated from unrounded data and are not annualized.  Real estimates are in chained (2000) dollars.

This news release is available on BEAs Web site at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/rels.htm.