News Release
Personal Income and Outlays, April 2008
April 2008
Personal income increased $20.1 billion, or 0.2 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI)
increased $23.4 billion, or 0.2 percent, in April, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $21.4 billion, or 0.2 percent. In March, personal
income increased $44.7 billion, or 0.4 percent, DPI increased $35.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE
increased $41.7 billion, or 0.4 percent, based on revised estimates.
Real disposable personal income decreased less than 0.1 percent in April, in contrast to an increase
of less than 0.1 percent in March. Real PCE decreased less than 0.1 percent, in contrast to an increase
of 0.1 percent.
2007 2008
Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.
(Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars 0.5 0.2 0.5 0.4 0.2
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.2
Chained (2000) dollars 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.0 0.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.4 0.2
Chained (2000) dollars -0.1 0.2 -0.1 0.1 0.0
Wages and salaries
Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $18.2 billion in April, in contrast to an
increase of $26.9 billion in March. Private wages and salaries had been boosted by $15.0 billion at
an annual rate in January, in February, and in March to reflect large bonus payments. These types of
irregular payments are not accounted for in the primary monthly source data for wages and salaries.
This adjustment for one-time bonuses has not been carried forward in the estimates of wage and
salary disbursements for April and subsequent months. Goods-producing industries' payrolls
decreased $11.4 billion, in contrast to an increase of $4.5 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased
$5.1 billion, in contrast to an increase of $2.5 billion. Services-producing industries' payrolls
decreased $6.8 billion, in contrast to an increase of $22.4 billion. Government wage and salary
disbursements increased $3.7 billion, compared with an increase of $3.4 billion.
Other personal income
Supplements to wages and salaries increased $3.7 billion in April, compared with an increase
of $5.9 billion in March.
Proprietors' income decreased $0.9 billion in April, compared with a decrease of $4.9 billion in
March. Farm proprietors' income was unchanged in April; farm proprietors' income decreased $4.9
billion in March. Nonfarm proprietors' income decreased $1.0 billion in April; nonfarm proprietors'
was unchanged in March.
Rental income of persons increased $10.0 billion in April, in contrast to a decrease of $1.2
billion in March. Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal
dividend income) increased $5.4 billion, compared with an increase $4.9 billion.
Personal current transfer receipts increased $14.3 billion in April, compared with an increase of
$13.7 billion in March. The April change in personal current transfer receipts was boosted $7.8
billion at an annual rate to reflect payments under the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 to individuals
who either paid no income tax or whose payment exceeded the amount of income tax paid. For more
information, see box below.
Personal contributions for social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal income --
decreased $2.0 billion in April, in contrast to an increase of $3.9 billion in March.
Personal current taxes and disposable personal income
Personal current taxes decreased $3.4 billion in April, in contrast to an increase of $9.3 billion
in March. The April change in personal current taxes was reduced by $15.5 billion at an annual rate
to reflect rebates that began at the end of the month under the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.
Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased $23.4
billion, or 0.2 percent, in April, compared with an increase of $35.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, in March.
Personal outlays and personal saving
Personal outlays -- PCE, interest paid by persons, and personal transfer payments to the rest of
the world (net) -- increased $27.3 billion in April, compared with an increase of $34.2 billion in
March. PCE increased $21.4 billion, compared with an increase of $41.7 billion.
Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $75.0 billion in April, compared with $78.9
billion in March. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 0.7 percent in
April, the same percentage as in March. Saving from current income may be near zero or negative
when outlays are financed by borrowing (including borrowing financed through credit cards or home
equity loans), by selling investments or other assets, or by using savings from previous periods. For
more information, see the FAQs on "Personal Saving" on BEA's Web site. For a comparison of
personal saving in BEA's national income and product accounts with personal saving in the Federal
Reserve Board's flow of funds accounts and data on changes in net worth (which help finance
consumption), go to /bea/dn/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp.
Real DPI and real PCE
Real DPI -- DPI adjusted to remove price changes -- decreased less than 0.1 percent in April, in
contrast to an increase of less than 0.1 percent in March.
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- decreased less than 0.1 percent in April,
in contrast to an increase of 0.1 percent in March. Purchases of durable goods decreased 0.2
percent, compared with a decrease of 1.3 percent. Purchases of nondurable goods decreased 0.2
percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.5 percent. Purchases of services increased 0.1 percent, the
same increase as in March.
The price index for PCE increased 0.2 percent in April, compared with an increase of 0.3
percent in March. Prices, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 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 of fourth-quarter private wages and salaries from the quarterly
census of employment and wages. Wages and salaries were revised up for all three months.
Revisions to personal current taxes and to contributions for government social insurance reflected
the revisions to wages and salaries.
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...................... 58.2 59.3 0.5 0.5 38.8 44.7 0.3 0.4
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars...................... 50.3 51.3 0.5 0.5 29.6 35.4 0.3 0.3
Chained (2000) dollars............... 29.6 30.6 0.3 0.4 -1.4 2.7 0.0 0.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars...................... 11.0 7.8 0.1 0.1 42.9 41.7 0.4 0.4
Chained (2000) dollars............... -2.7 -5.0 0.0 -0.1 10.7 9.1 0.1 0.1
This news release presents revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and
contributions for government social insurance for October through December 2007 (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.
Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 provides rebate payments to eligible individual taxpayers as
well as tax reductions for businesses. For individuals, the amount of the rebate is determined by
information reported on tax filings for 2007 and is based on filing status, level of adjusted gross income,
and the number of qualifying children. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation and the
Congressional Budget Office, rebates to individuals are expected to total $106.7 billion for 2008. The
majority of rebates will be sent during the initial round of payments, which began April 28, 2008, and
will continue on a weekly basis through mid-July 2008.
In the NIPAs, rebates for residents of the 50 states and the District of Columbia will be recorded as
either an offset to personal current taxes or as a social benefit payment to persons. Rebates for
individuals with tax liabilities that exceed the rebate amount will be treated as an offset to personal
current taxes in the NIPAs. Rebates for individuals who pay no income taxes (or for whom the rebate
would exceed the amount of the income taxes they do pay) will be treated as a government social benefit
payment to persons in the NIPAs.
Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts
As part of the annual revision of the national income and product accounts, revised estimates of
personal income and outlays covering January 2005 through May 2008 will be released along with
preliminary estimates for June 2008 on August 4. An article describing the revision will appear in the
August 2008 issue of the Survey of Current Business.
BEA's national, international, regional, and industry estimates; the Survey of Current
Business; and BEA news releases are available without charge on BEA's 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 27, 2008 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for May.