News Release
Personal Income and Outlays, March 2009
March 2009
Personal income decreased $34.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI)
decreased $1.8 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, inMarch, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $24.2 billion, or 0.2 percent. In February,
personal income decreased $24.3 billion, or 0.2 percent, DPI increased $0.2 billion, or less than 0.1
percent, and PCE increased $39.1 billion, or 0.4 percent, based on revised estimates.
Real disposable income increased less than 0.1 percent in March, in contrast to a decrease of 0.3
percent in February. Real PCE decreased 0.2 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.1 percent.
2008 2009
Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.
(Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars -0.5 -0.3 0.1 -0.2 -0.3
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars -0.4 -0.3 1.6 0.0 0.0
Chained (2000) dollars 0.7 0.2 1.4 -0.3 0.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars -0.7 -1.1 1.1 0.4 -0.2
Chained (2000) dollars 0.4 -0.6 0.9 0.1 -0.2
Wages and salaries
Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $32.9 billion in March, compared with a decrease
of $28.8 billion in February. Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $15.3 billion,
compared with a decrease of $14.2 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $7.8 billion, compared
with a decrease of $7.4 billion. Services-producing industries' payrolls decreased $17.6 billion,
compared with a decrease of $14.6 billion. Government wage and salary disbursements increased
$2.9 billion compared with an increase of $1.9 billion.
Other personal income
Supplements to wages and salaries increased $2.1 billion in March, compared with an increase of $2.5 billion in February.
Proprietors' income decreased $5.9 billion in March, in contrast to an increase of $1.9 billion in February.
Farm proprietors' income increased $0.2 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $1.2 billion. Nonfarm proprietors'
income decreased $5.9 billion, in contrast to an increase of $3.0 billion.
Rental income of persons decreased $3.3 billion in March, compared with a decrease of $2.6 billion in February.
Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) decreased $20.7 billion,
compared with a decrease of $20.6 billion. Personal current transfer receipts increased $18.8 billion,
compared with an increase of $17.2 billion.
Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal income -- decreased
$4.4 billion in March, compared with a decrease of $4.3 billion in February.
Personal current taxes and disposable personal income
Personal current taxes decreased $32.7 billion in March, compared with a decrease of $24.6 billion in February.
The Making Work Pay Credit provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 reduced personnel current
taxes $11.2 billion at an annual rate. The act provides for 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 decreased $1.8 billion,
or less than 0.1 percent in March, in contrast to an increase of $0.2 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in February.
Personal outlays and personal saving
Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments -- decreased
$24.5 billion inMarch, in contrast to an increase of $38.7 billion in February. PCE decreased $24.2 billion, in
contrast to an increase of $39.1 billion.
Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays was $455.3 billion in March, compared with $432.6 billion in February.
Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 4.2 percent in March, compared with 4.0 percent
in February. 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 less than 0.1 percent in March, in contrast
to a decrease of 0.3 percent in February.
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- decreased 0.2 percent in March, in contrast
to an increase of 0.1 percent in February. Purchases of durable goods decreased 0.8 percent,
compared with a decrease of 0.6 percent. Purchases of nondurable goods decreased 0.6 percent,
in contrast to an increase of 0.4 percent. Purchases of services increased 0.1 percent, compared to
an increase of less than 0.1 percent.
PCE price index -- The price index for PCE decreased less than 0.1 percent in March, in contrast
to an increase of 0.3 percent in February. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased
0.2 percent, the same increase as in February.
Revisions
Estimates have been revised for January and February. Changes in personal income, current-dollar and
chained (2000) dollar DPI, and current-dollar and chained (2000) dollar PCE for January and
February -- revised and as published in last month's release -- are shown below.
Change from preceding month
January February
Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised
(Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent)
Personal Income:
Current dollars..................... 20.5 13.7 0.2 0.1 -29.1 -24.3 -0.2 -0.2
Disposable personal income:
Current Dollars..................... 164.6 169.1 1.6 1.6 -10.5 0.2 -0.1 0.0
Chained (2000) dollars.............. 113.6 119.5 1.3 1.4 -39.7 -29.8 -0.4 -0.3
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars..................... 94.8 107.0 1.0 1.1 17.2 39.1 0.2 0.4
Chained (2000) dollars.............. 57.5 69.7 0.7 0.9 -14.4 4.4 -0.2 0.1
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 an 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.
An article in the May Survey will describe changes in statistical methods, and 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.
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Next release - June 1, 2009 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for April.