News Release

BEA 08-60

Personal Income and Outlays, November 2008

Personal income decreased $20.7 billion, or 0.2 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI)
decreased $11.8 billion, or 0.1 percent, in November, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $56.1 billion, or 0.6 percent.  In October,
personal income increased $11.3 billion, or 0.1 percent, DPI increased $16.7 billion, or 0.2
percent, and PCE decreased $102.6 billion, or 1.0 percent, based on revised estimates.

Real disposable income increased 1.0 percent in November, compared with an increase of 0.7
percent in October.  Real PCE increased 0.6 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 0.5 percent.  The price
index for PCE decreased 1.1 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.5 percent.

                                        2008
                                        July            Aug.            Sept.           Oct.            Nov.
                                                       (Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars       -0.8             0.3             0.0             0.1            -0.2
Disposable personal income:
 Current dollars                       -1.0            -1.1             0.1             0.2            -0.1
 Chained (2000) dollars                -1.5            -1.1             0.0             0.7             1.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars                       -0.1            -0.2            -0.4            -1.0            -0.6
 Chained (2000) dollars                -0.6            -0.1            -0.5            -0.5             0.6

                                Wages and salaries

Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $8.7 billion in November, compared with a decrease of
$1.5 billion in October.  Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $5.5 billion, compared with
a decrease of $3.2 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $3.0 billion, compared with a decrease of
$1.4 billion.  Services-producing industries' payrolls decreased $3.2 billion, in contrast to an increase
of $1.9 billion.  Government wage and salary disbursements increased $3.5 billion compared with an
increase of $5.9 billion.

                                Other personal income

Supplements to wages and salaries increased $0.8 billion in November, compared with an
increase of $2.3 billion in October.

Proprietors' income decreased $12.0 billion in November, in contrast to an increase of
$1.2 billion in October. Farm proprietors' income decreased $3.9 billion, compared with
a decrease of $5.3 billion.  Nonfarm proprietors' income decreased $8.1 billion, in contrast
to an increase of $6.5 billion.  Changes in nonfarm proprietors’ income reflected the impact
of Hurricane Ike, which subtracted $8.8 billion (at an annual rate) in September.

Rental income of persons increased $3.0 billion in November, compared with an increase of
$31.0 billion in October. Changes in rental income reflected the impact of the hurricane,
which subtracted $26.6 billion (at an annual rate) in September.

Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income)
decreased $14.0 billion, compared with a decrease of $14.2 billion. Personal current
transfer receipts increased $5.2 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $13.5 billion.
Changes in personal current transfer receipts primarily reflected the impact of net insurance
settlements associated with the hurricane, which added $26.9 billion (at an annual rate) in September.

Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal
income -- decreased $1.5 billion in November, compared with a decrease of $0.1 billion in October.

                                Personal current taxes and disposable personal income

Personal current taxes decreased $8.9 billion in November, compared with a decrease
of $5.4 billion in October.

Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- decreased $11.8 billion,
or 0.1 percent, in November, in contrast to an increase of $16.7 billion, or 0.2 percent in October.

                                Personal outlays and personal saving

Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments --
decreased $57.4 billion in November, compared with a decrease of $104.1 billion in October.
PCE decreased $56.1 billion, compared with a decrease of  $102.6 billion.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $298.0 billion in November, compared with
$252.3 billion in  October. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 2.8 percent
in November, compared with 2.4 percent in October. 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 -- increased 1.0 percent in November, compared
with an increase of 0.7 percent in October.

Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.6 percent in November, in contrast
to a decrease of 0.5 percent in October. The increase in real PCE in November, in contrast to
the decrease in current-dollar PCE, reflects a decrease in the PCE implicit price deflator.
Purchases of durable goods increased 0.6 percent in November, in contrast to a decrease of 4.0
percent in October. Purchases of nondurable goods increased 1.5 percent, in contrast to a decrease
of 0.9 percent.  Purchases of services increased 0.1 percent, compared with an increase of 0.3 percent.

PCE price index -- the price index for PCE decreased 1.1 percent in November, compared with a decrease
of 0.5 percent in October. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, was essentially unchanged
in November and in October.

                                Revisions

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

                                                                Change from preceding month
                                        September                                 October
                                        Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised
                                       (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)      (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)
Personal Income:
 Current dollars.....................   8.0        4.4       0.1        0.0       42.4       11.3      0.3        0.1
Disposable personal income:
 Current dollars.....................   11.6       10.3      0.1        0.1       45.1       16.7      0.4        0.2
 Chained (2000) dollars..............   0.8        1.1       0.0        0.0       85.9       61.2      1.0        0.7
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars.....................  -33.7      -38.5     -0.3       -0.4      -102.8     -102.6    -1.0       -1.0
 Chained (2000) dollars..............  -35.7      -38.3     -0.4       -0.5      -37.2      -38.6     -0.5       -0.5

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
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Next release –- February 2, 2009, at 8:30 A.M. EST for Personal Income and Outlays for December.



Release Dates for 2009

December 2008..February 2          April 2009.. June 1         August 2009...  October 1
January 2009...March 2             May 2009..   June 26        September 2009. October 30
February 2009..March 27            June 2009..  August 4       October 2009..  November 25
March 2009.....April 30            July 2009... August 28      November 2009.  December 23