News Release
These data have been superseded. Please see our latest releases for current estimates and contact information.
Personal Income and Outlays, April 2015
Personal income increased $59.4 billion, or 0.4 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased
$48.8 billion, or 0.4 percent, in April, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal
consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $2.6 billion, or less than 0.1 percent. In March, personal
income increased $4.0 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, DPI increased $0.5 billion, or less than 0.1 percent,
and PCE increased $65.6 billion, or 0.5 percent, based on revised estimates.
Real DPI increased 0.3 percent in April, in contrast to a decrease of 0.2 percent in March.
Real PCE decreased less than 0.1 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.4 percent.
2014 2015
Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.
(Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.0 0.4
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.4
Chained (2009) dollars 0.6 0.6 0.3 -0.2 0.3
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars -0.2 -0.3 0.1 0.5 0.0
Chained (2009) dollars 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.4 0.0
BOX.______________
This news release presents revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for
government social insurance for October through December 2014 (fourth quarter). These estimates reflect
the incorporation of the most recently available fourth-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the
quarterly census of employment and wages (QCEW) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
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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.
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Compensation
Wages and salaries increased $17.7 billion in April, compared with an increase of $9.5 billion in March.
Private wages and salaries increased $15.7 billion, compared with an increase of $8.4 billion.
Government wages and salaries increased $2.0 billion, compared with an increase of $1.0 billion.
Supplements to wages and salaries increased $4.3 billion in April, compared with an increase of $3.8 billion in March.
Other personal income
Proprietors' income increased $2.5 billion in April, in contrast to a decrease of $0.5 billion in March.
Farm proprietors' income increased $2.9 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $8.0 billion. Nonfarm proprietors'
income decreased $0.4 billion, in contrast to an increase of $7.5 billion.
Rental income of persons increased $3.9 billion in April, compared with an increase of $3.3 billion in March.
Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) increased $26.6 billion,
in contrast to a decrease of $30.9 billion. Personal current transfer receipts increased $6.5 billion, compared
with an increase of $19.7 billion.
Contributions for government social insurance -- a subtraction in calculating personal income -- increased
$2.2 billion in April, compared with an increase of $0.8 billion in March.
Personal current taxes and disposable personal income
Personal current taxes increased $10.6 billion in April, compared with an increase of $3.4 billion in March.
Disposable personal income (DPI) -- personal income less personal current taxes -- increased $48.8 billion,
or 0.4 percent, in April, compared with an increase of $0.5 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in March.
Personal outlays and personal saving
Personal outlays -- PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments -- decreased
$2.7 billion in April, in contrast to an increase of $69.9 billion in March. PCE decreased $2.6 billion,
in contrast to an increase of $65.6 billion.
Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $744.0 billion in April, compared with $692.5 billion
in March. The personal saving rate -- personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was
5.6 percent in April, compared with 5.2 percent in March. 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 0.3 percent in April, in contrast to a
decrease of 0.2 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 0.4 percent in March. Purchases of durable goods decreased 0.8 percent, in contrast
to an increase of 2.1 percent. Purchases of motor vehicles and parts accounted for most of the decrease
in April, and for about half of the increase in March. Purchases of nondurable goods decreased 0.1 percent
in April, in contrast to an increase of 0.4 percent in March. Purchases of services increased 0.1 percent
in April, the same increase as in March.
The price index for PCE increased less than 0.1 percent in April, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent in March.
The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 percent in April, the same increase as in March.
The April price index for PCE increased 0.1 percent from April a year ago. The April PCE price index, excluding
food and energy, increased 1.2 percent from April a year ago.
Revisions
Estimates for personal income and DPI have been revised for October through March; estimates for PCE have been
revised for January through March. Changes in personal income, in current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar DPI,
and in current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar PCE for February and March -- revised and as published in last
month's release -- are shown below.
Estimates of wages and salaries were revised from October through March. The revision to fourth-quarter wages
and salaries reflected the incorporation of the most recently available BLS tabulations of fourth-quarter wages
and salaries from the QCEW. Revised estimates for January, February, and March reflect extrapolations from the
revised fourth-quarter level of wages. In addition, revisions to February and March reflect revised BLS employment,
hours, and earnings data for those months.
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 66.4 61.3 0.4 0.4 6.2 4.0 0.0 0.0
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 61.2 56.6 0.5 0.4 1.6 0.5 0.0 0.0
Chained (2009) dollars 35.2 31.4 0.3 0.3 -19.5 -18.8 -0.2 -0.2
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 20.8 15.1 0.2 0.1 53.4 65.6 0.4 0.5
Chained (2009) dollars -0.2 -4.9 0.0 0.0 30.1 42.8 0.3 0.4
BOX.______________
Upcoming 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 will be released in conjunction with preliminary estimates for June 2015 on August 3, 2015.
In addition to the regular revision of estimates for the most recent 3 years and for the first 5 months of 2015,
personal income and select components will be revised back further. The June Survey of Current Business will
contain an article that previews the annual revision, and the August Survey will contain an article that describes the results.
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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
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can access BEA data by registering for our Data Application Programming Interface, or API at www.bea.gov/API/signup/index.cfm.
BEA's news release schedule is available at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/2015rd.htm.
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Next release – June 25, 2015 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for May