News Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010
BEA 10-12

Personal Income and Outlays, February 2010


Personal income increased $1.2 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, and disposable personal income
(DPI) increased $1.6 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, inFebruary, according to the Bureau of Economic
Analysis.  Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $34.7 billion, or 0.3 percent.  In January,
personal income increased $30.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI decreased $26.0 billion, or 0.2 percent,
and PCE increased $38.5 billion, or 0.4 percent, based on revised estimates.

Real disposable income increased less than 0.1 percent in February, in contrast to a decrease of
0.4 percent in January.  Real PCE increased 0.3 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent.

                                        2009                                            2010
                                        Oct.            Nov.            Dec.            Jan.            Feb.
                                                       (Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars        0.2             0.4             0.4             0.3             0.0
Disposable personal income:
 Current dollars                        0.2             0.4             0.5            -0.2             0.0
 Chained (2005) dollars                -0.1             0.2             0.3            -0.4             0.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars                        0.6             0.5             0.4             0.4             0.3
 Chained (2005) dollars                 0.3             0.3             0.2             0.2             0.3

                                Compensation of employees

Private wage and salary disbursements increased $2.0 billion in February, compared with an increase
of $16.6 billion in January.  Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $3.5 billion, in contrast
to an increase of $5.2 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $1.4 billion, in contrast to an
increase of $5.0 billion.  Services-producing industries' payrolls increased $5.5 billion,
compared with an increase of $11.4 billion.

Government wage and salary disbursements increased $0.7 billion in February, compared with
an increase of $6.8 billion in January.  Pay raises for federal civilian and military
personnel had added $7.1 billion to government payrolls in January.

Employer contributions for employee pension and insurance funds increased $2.7 billion in February,
compared with an increase of $3.2 billion in January.

Employer contributions for government social insurance increased $0.3 billion in February,
compared with an increase of $11.5 billion in January.  The January change reflected an increase
in the tax rates paid by employers to state unemployment insurance funds, which had boosted
January contributions by $10.2 billion.  (Changes in employer contributions for government
social insurance do not affect personal income, because employer contributions for government social
insurance are also included in total contributions for government social insurance, which is a
subtraction in the calculation of personal income.)

                                Other personal income

Proprietors' income decreased $6.1 billion in February, the same decrease as in January.
Farm proprietors' income decreased $7.1 billion, the same decrease as in January.  Nonfarm proprietors'
income increased $1.0 billion, the same increase as in January.

Rental income of persons increased $2.2 billion in February, compared with an increase of $1.9 billion
in January.  Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income)
decreased $16.5 billion, the same decrease as in January.

Personal current transfer receipts increased $16.6 billion in February, compared with an increase of
$29.8 billion in January.  The January change reflected the Making Work Pay Credit provision of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which boosted January receipts by $19.8 billion.
The Act provides for a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for
married taxpayers.  When an individuals tax credit exceeds the taxes owed, the refundable tax credit
payment is classified as other government social benefits to persons.

Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal
income -- increased $0.7 billion in February, compared with an increase of $16.7 billion in January.
As noted above, employer contributions were boosted $10.2 billion in January by increases in
unemployment-insurance rates.

                                Personal current taxes and disposable personal income

Personal current taxes decreased $0.5 billion in February, in contrast to an increase of $56.5 billion
in January.  Federal net nonwithheld income taxes (payments of estimated taxes plus final settlements
less refunds) had been boosted in January by $52.5 billion, based on federal budget projections
of higher final settlements and lower refunds for 2010.

Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased
$1.6 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in February, in contrast to a decrease of $26.0 billion,
or 0.2 percent, in January.

                                Personal outlays and personal saving

Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer
payments -- increased $36.4 billion inFebruary, compared with an increase of $40.4 billion in January.
PCE increased $34.7 billion, compared with an increase of $38.5 billion.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $340.0 billion in February, compared with
$374.9 billion in January. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income
was 3.1 percent in February, compared with 3.4 percent in January.  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, real PCE and PCE price index

Real DPI -- DPI adjusted to remove price changes -- increased less than 0.1 percent in February,
in contrast to a decrease of 0.4 percent in January.

Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.3 percent in February, compared
with an increase of 0.2 percent in January.  Purchases of durable goods decreased 0.2 percent,
compared with a decrease of 0.7 percent.  Purchases of nondurable goods increased 0.9 percent,
compared with an increase of 0.7 percent.  Purchases of services increased 0.3 percent, compared
with an increase of 0.2 percent.

PCE price index -- The price index for PCE decreased less than 0.1 percent in February, in contrast
to an increase of 0.2 percent in January.  The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased
less than 0.1 percent, in contrast to a decrease of less than 0.1 percent.

                                Revisions

Estimates have been revised for October 2009 through January 2010.  Changes in personal income,
current-dollar and chained (2005) dollar DPI, and current-dollar and chained (2005) dollar PCE
for December and January -- revised and as published in last month's release -- are shown below.

                                                                Change from preceding month
                                        December                                  January
                                        Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous   Revised   Previous  Revised
                                       (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)      (Billions of dollars)      (Percent)
Personal Income:
 Current dollars                        41.2       52.5      0.3        0.4       11.4       30.4      0.1       0.3
Disposable personal income:
 Current Dollars                        40.3       51.2      0.4        0.5      -47.6      -26.0     -0.4      -0.2
 Chained (2005) dollars                 22.7       30.8      0.2        0.3      -60.8      -40.1     -0.6      -0.4
Personal consumption expenditures:
 Current dollars                        26.4       37.0      0.3        0.4       52.4       38.5      0.5       0.4
 Chained (2005) dollars                 11.1       19.0      0.1        0.2       31.0       19.6      0.3       0.2

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  May 3, 2010 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for March.

                                -more-
________________________
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 (2005) dollars.

This news release is available on BEAs Web site at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/rels.htm.