News Release
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.