News Release
These data have been superseded. Please see our latest releases for current estimates and contact information.
Personal Income and Outlays, January 2015
Personal income increased $50.8 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $52.6 billion, or 0.4 percent, in January, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $18.9 billion, or 0.2 percent. In December, personal income increased $45.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $37.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE decreased $35.7 billion, or 0.3 percent, based on revised estimates. Real DPI increased 0.9 percent in January, compared with an increase of 0.5 percent in December. Real PCE increased 0.3 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 0.1 percent. The price index for PCE decreased 0.5 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.2 percent. 2014 2015 Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. (Percent change from preceding month) Personal income, current dollars 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 Disposable personal income: Current dollars 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 Chained (2009) dollars 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.9 Personal consumption expenditures: Current dollars 0.2 0.4 0.4 -0.3 -0.2 Chained (2009) dollars 0.2 0.3 0.6 -0.1 0.3 BOX.______________ This news release presents revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for government social insurance for July through September 2014 (third quarter). These estimates reflect the incorporation of the most recently available third-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. __________________ FOOTNOTE._________ 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 (2009) dollars. This news release is available on BEA’s Web site at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/rels.htm. __________________ Compensation Wages and salaries increased $42.4 billion in January, compared with an increase of $8.6 billion in December. Private wages and salaries increased $39.7 billion, compared with an increase of $7.2 billion. Government wages and salaries increased $2.5 billion, compared with an increase of $1.5 billion. Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel added $2.2 billion to government payrolls in January. Employer contributions for employee pension and insurance funds increased $3.9 billion in January, compared with an increase of $3.0 billion in December. Employer contributions for government social insurance increased $4.1 billion in January, compared with $0.5 billion in December. The January estimate reflected an increase in the social security taxable wage base (from $117,000 to $118,500), an increase in the tax rate paid by employers to state unemployment insurance, and a decrease in employer contributions for federal unemployment tax; together, these changes added $1.2 billion to January. Other personal income Proprietors' income decreased $12.8 billion in January, in contrast to an increase of $13.5 billion in December. Farm proprietors' income decreased $10.0 billion, in contrast to an increase of $3.8 billion. Nonfarm proprietors' income decreased $2.8 billion, in contrast to an increase of $9.7 billion. Rental income of persons increased $1.7 billion in January, compared with an increase of $4.8 billion in December. Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) decreased $5.2 billion, in contrast to an increase of $2.1 billion. Personal current transfer receipts increased $24.8 billion in January, compared with an increase of $13.8 billion in December. The January estimates of current transfer receipts reflected several special factors. A 1.7-percent cost-of-living adjustment to social security benefits and to several other federal transfer payment programs added $16.7 billion to the January increase. Other government social benefits to persons was boosted $5.3 billion, primarily reflecting health insurance premium subsidies paid in the form of tax credits to enrollees of the Affordable Care Act exchanges. For additional information, see the FAQ on “How will the Affordable Care Act affect BEA’s measure of personal income and outlays?” at www.bea.gov. These increases in current transfer receipts were partly offset by a reduction in the lump-sum social security benefit payments that had boosted December personal income $8.8 billion. Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal income -- increased $7.9 billion in January, compared with an increase of $1.0 billion in December. The January estimate reflected increases in both employer and employee contributions for government social insurance. The January estimate of employee contributions for government social insurance reflected an increase in the social security taxable wage base and in the monthly premiums paid by participants in the supplementary medical insurance programs; together, these changes added $1.4 billion to January. Personal current taxes and disposable personal income Personal current taxes decreased $1.8 billion in January, in contrast to an increase of $8.0 billion in December. Payments of final settlements and back taxes less refunds in federal nonwithheld income taxes reduced the January change by $5.8 billion, based on projections from the Office of Tax Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased $52.6 billion, or 0.4 percent, in January, compared with an increase of $37.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, in December. Excluding the special factors discussed above, disposable personal income increased $32.8 billion, or 0.2 percent, in January, compared with an increase of $28.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, in December. Personal outlays and personal saving Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments -- decreased $16.3 billion in January, compared with a decrease of $35.3 billion in December. PCE decreased $18.9 billion, compared with a decrease of $35.7 billion. Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $728.5 billion in January, compared with $659.6 billion in December. The personal saving rate -- personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 5.5 percent in January, compared with 5.0 percent in December. For a comparison of personal saving in BEA's national income and product accounts with personal saving in the Federal Reserve Board's financial accounts of the United States and data on changes in net worth, go to www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/nipa-frb.asp. Real DPI, real PCE, and price index Real DPI -- DPI adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.9 percent in January, compared with an increase of 0.5 percent in December. Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.3 percent in January, in contrast to a decrease of 0.1 percent in December. Purchases of durable goods increased 0.2 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 1.0 percent. Purchases of nondurable goods increased 0.2 percent in January, in contrast to a decrease of 0.2 percent in December. Purchases of services increased 0.4 percent, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent. The price index for PCE decreased 0.5 percent in January, compared with a decrease of 0.2 percent in December. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 percent, compared with an increase of less than 0.1 percent. The January price index for PCE increased 0.2 percent from January a year ago. The January PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 1.3 percent from January a year ago. 2014 Personal Income and Outlays Personal income increased 4.0 percent in 2014 (that is, from the 2013 annual level to the 2014 annual level), compared with an increase of 2.0 percent in 2013. DPI increased 3.9 percent, compared with an increase of 1.0 percent. PCE increased 3.9 percent, compared with an increase of 3.6 percent. Real DPI increased 2.5 percent in 2014, in contrast to a decrease of 0.2 percent in 2013. Real PCE increased 2.5 percent, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent. Revisions Estimates of personal income and DPI have been revised for July through December; estimates for PCE have been revised for October through December. Changes in personal income, in current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar DPI, and in current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar PCE for November and December -- revised and as published in last month's release -- are shown below. Estimates of wages and salaries were revised from July through December. The revision to third-quarter wages and salaries reflected the incorporation of the most recently available Bureau of Labor Statistics tabulations of the third-quarter wages and salaries from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Revised estimates for October, November, and December reflect extrapolations from the revised third-quarter level of wages. In addition, revisions to October, November, and December reflect revised BLS employment, hours, and earnings data. Change from preceding month November December Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised (Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent) Personal income: Current dollars 47.2 62.6 0.3 0.4 41.3 45.3 0.3 0.3 Disposable personal income: Current dollars 34.2 44.2 0.3 0.3 35.8 37.3 0.3 0.3 Chained (2009) dollars 51.2 59.9 0.4 0.5 61.2 62.1 0.5 0.5 Personal consumption expenditures: Current dollars 58.8 52.1 0.5 0.4 -40.0 -35.7 -0.3 -0.3 Chained (2009) dollars 72.3 65.8 0.7 0.6 -10.8 -7.3 -0.1 -0.1 BOX.______________ This release includes revised estimates of population, per capita disposable personal income (DPI), and per capita real DPI. The revised population estimates reflect newly available estimates from the Census Bureau for March 2010 through December 2014. BEA population estimates are a mid-month average of Census Bureau data. The revised per capita estimates reflect the revisions to the population estimates. Estimates for the complete revision period are available on BEA's Web site at www.bea.gov/iTable/index_nipa.cfm. __________________ BEA's national, international, regional, and industry estimates; BEA news releases; and related articles in the Survey of Current Business are available for free on BEA's Web site at www.bea.gov. The entire historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA's Interactive Data Application at www.bea.gov/itable/. Stay informed about BEA developments by signing up for our email subscription service or following us on Twitter @BEA_News. You also can access BEA data by registering for our Data Application Programming Interface, or API. (www.bea.gov/API/signup/index.cfm). BEA's news release schedule is available at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/2015rd.htm. * * * Next release – March 30, 2015 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for February