News Release
Personal Income and Outlays, March 2025
Personal income increased $116.8 billion (0.5 percent at a monthly rate) in March, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $102.0 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $134.5 billion (0.7 percent).
Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $136.6 billion in March. Personal saving was $872.3 billion in March and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.9 percent.
The increase in current-dollar personal income in March primarily reflected increases in compensation and proprietors’ income.
The $134.5 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in March reflected increases of $54.5 billion in spending for goods and $79.9 billion in spending for services.
From the preceding month, the PCE price index for March decreased less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased less than 0.1 percent.
From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for March increased 2.3 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 2.6 percent from one year ago.
| Personal Income and Related Measures |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current-dollar personal income | 0.5 | |||
| Current-dollar disposable personal income | 0.5 | |||
| Real disposable personal income | 0.5 | |||
| Current-dollar personal consumption expenditures (PCE) | 0.7 | |||
| Real PCE | 0.7 | |||
| PCE price index | 0.0 | |||
| PCE price index, excluding food and energy | 0.0 | |||
Next release: May 30, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays, April 2025
Technical Notes
Changes in Personal Income and Outlays for March
The increase in personal income in March reflected an increase in compensation and proprietors’ income.
- The increase in compensation was led by private wages and salaries, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES). Wages and salaries in services-producing industries increased $46.4 billion. Wages and salaries in goods-producing industries increased $11.8 billion.
- The increase in proprietors’ income was led by farm proprietors’ income, primarily reflecting payments from the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program as part of the American Relief Act.
- In March, some federal government employees opted to accept a deferred resignation program offer. Federal workers who accepted the deferred resignation offer are counted as employed in the BLS source data. Because these employees will continue to receive compensation until they officially separate from the federal government, BEA made no adjustment as a result of this program.
Revisions to Personal Income
Estimates have been updated for January and February, reflecting updated BLS CES data. Wages and salaries increased 0.2 percent in January and 0.4 percent in February, both the same as previously estimated.