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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Thursday, June 30, 2022

BEA 22–29

Personal Income and Outlays, May 2022

Personal income increased $113.4 billion (0.5 percent) in May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $96.5 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $32.7 billion (0.2 percent).

Real DPI decreased 0.1 percent in May and Real PCE decreased 0.4 percent; goods decreased 1.6 percent and services increased 0.3 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.6 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent (table 9).

	2022
	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May
	Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
Current dollars	0.0	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	-1.3	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5
Chained (2012) dollars	-1.8	0.1	-0.4	0.2	-0.1
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
Current dollars	1.9	0.6	1.2	0.6	0.2
Chained (2012) dollars	1.3	0.0	0.3	0.3	-0.4
Price indexes:
PCE	0.5	0.5	0.9	0.2	0.6
PCE, excluding food and energy	0.5	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Price indexes:	Percent change from month one year ago
PCE	6.0	6.3	6.6	6.3	6.3
PCE, excluding food and energy	5.1	5.3	5.2	4.9	4.7

The increase in personal income in May primarily reflected increases in compensation and proprietors' income that were partly offset by a decrease in government social benefits (table 3). Within compensation, the increase reflected increases in both private and government wages and salaries. The increase in proprietors' income was led by nonfarm income. The decrease in government social benefits primarily reflected a decrease in “other” benefits that was partly offset by increases in Medicaid and Medicare. Within “other” benefits, the decrease primarily reflected a decline in transfers to nonprofit health care providers through the Provider Relief Fund.

The $32.7 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in May reflected an increase of $76.2 billion in spending for services that was partly offset by a decrease of $43.5 billion in spending for goods (table 3). Within services, increases in housing and utilities (led by housing), "other" services (led by international travel), and health care (led by hospitals) were the largest contributors. Within goods, a decrease in spending on motor vehicles and parts (led by new motor vehicles) was partly offset by an increase in gasoline and other energy goods (led by motor vehicle fuels). Detailed information on monthly PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.5U.

Personal outlays increased $38.3 billion in May (table 3). Personal saving was $1.01 trillion in May and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 5.4 percent (table 1).

The PCE price index for May increased 6.3 percent from one year ago, reflecting increases in both goods and services (table 11). Energy prices increased 35.8 percent while food prices increased 11.0 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index for May increased 4.7 percent from one year ago.

Annual Update of the National Economic Accounts

BEA will release results from the 2022 annual update of the National Economic Accounts, which includes the National Income and Product Accounts as well as the Industry Economic Accounts, on September 29, 2022. This update will present revised statistics for GDP, GDP by Industry, and gross domestic income that cover the first quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2022. Updated monthly personal income and outlays will be released on September 30, along with the August 2022 estimate. For details, refer to Information on Updates to the National Economic Accounts.

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for January through April. Revised and previously published changes from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and PCE, are provided below for March and April.

	Change from preceding month
	March				April
	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised
	(Billions of dollars)		(Percent)		(Billions of dollars)		(Percent)
Personal income:
Current dollars	116.9	122.9	0.5	0.6	89.3	106.2	0.4	0.5
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	79.9	100.5	0.4	0.6	48.3	85.2	0.3	0.5
Chained (2012) dollars	-69.5	-54.0	-0.5	-0.4	2.5	34.8	0.0	0.2
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars	230.3	195.4	1.4	1.2	152.3	92.8	0.9	0.6
Chained (2012) dollars	66.4	36.2	0.5	0.3	91.1	43.9	0.7	0.3

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Next release: July 29, 2022, at 8:30 A.M. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays, June 2022

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Full Release & Tables (PDF)

Tables Only (Excel)

Release Highlights (PDF)

Historical Comparisons (PDF)

Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income (PDF)

Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income (Excel)

Personal Income

Karl Rohrer

(301) 278-9083

piniwd@bea.gov

PCE Goods

Kyle Brown

301-278-9086

pce@bea.gov

PCE Services

Jeff Barnett

301-278-9663

pce@bea.gov

Media (BEA)

Connie O'Connell

301-278-9003

Connie.OConnell@bea.gov

Resources

Additional Resources available at www.bea.gov:

The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in these statistics because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified. For more Information about COVID-19 impacts, refer to Federal Recovery Programs and BEA Statistics on our website.
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NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts

Definitions

Personal income is the income received by, or on behalf of, all persons from all sources: from participation as laborers in production, from owning a home or business, from the ownership of financial assets, and from government and business in the form of transfers. It includes income from domestic sources as well as the rest of world. It does not include realized or unrealized capital gains or losses.

Disposable personal income is the income available to persons for spending or saving. It is equal to personal income less personal current taxes.

Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is the value of the goods and services purchased by, or on the behalf of, "persons" who reside in the United States.

Personal outlays is the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments.

Personal saving is personal income less personal outlays and personal current taxes.

The personal saving rate is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income.

Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at "market value." Also referred to as "nominal estimates" or as "current-price estimates."

Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates—that is, estimates that exclude the effects of price changes.

For more definitions, refer to the Glossary: National Income and Product Accounts.

Statistical conventions

Annual rates. Monthly and quarterly values are expressed at seasonally-adjusted annual rates (SAAR). Dollar changes are calculated as the difference between these SAAR values. For detail, refer to the FAQ "Why does BEA publish estimates at annual rates?"

Month-to-month percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are not annualized.

Quarter-to-quarter percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are displayed at annual rates. For detail, refer to the FAQ "How is average annual growth calculated?" and "Why does BEA publish percent changes in quarterly series at annual rates?"

Quantities and prices. Quantities, or "real" volume measures, and prices are expressed as index numbers with a specified reference year equal to 100 (currently 2012). Quantity and price indexes are calculated using a Fisherchained weighted formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent periods (months for monthly data, quarters for quarterly data and annuals for annual data). For details on the calculation of quantity and price indexes, refer to Chapter 4: Estimating Methods in the NIPA Handbook.

Chained-dollar values are calculated by multiplying the quantity index by the current dollar value in the reference year (2012) and then dividing by 100. Percent changes calculated from real quantity indexes and chained-dollar levels are conceptually the same; any differences are due to rounding. Chained-dollar values are not additive because the relative weights for a given period differ from those of the reference year. In tables that display chained-dollar values, a "residual" line shows the difference between the sum of detailed chained-dollar series and its corresponding aggregate.