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Idahoan's personal income up slightly
September 30, 2013
Rising wages offset lower business profits last spring, edging Idaho’s total personal income upward. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Idaho’s second quarter personal income at $56.4 billion on an annualized basis, up four-tenths of a percent from the first quarter.

Personal income is the value of all wages, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security, unemployment benefits and pensions.

Idaho wages and salaries rose eight-tenths of a percent to a record $25 billion during the April-June quarter, matching the national percentage increase to rank 15th among the states. But proprietors income dropped 4.4 percent on an annualized basis from a record $7.1 billion in the first quarter to $6.8 billion in the second. Only North and South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska had greater declines in proprietor income. Nationally, business profits were off two-tenths of a percent from the January-March quarter.

Idaho investment earnings and transfer payments changed only marginally from the first quarter.

Farm earnings in Idaho were off nearly 15 percent from the first quarter, and both transportation and educational services posted declines from the first quarter. Finance, real estate and entertainment posted gains of 2 percent or more, and construction, manufacturing, information and hotels and restaurants all saw gains of one percent or more.

Idaho’s increase of four-tenths of a percent was less than half the 1 percent increase nationally to rank 45th among the states and the District of Columbia. Five states in the Midwest posted lower growth rates.

The government also increased its income estimates for the past three years, revising Idaho’s total personal income for 2012 to over $55 billion. That was a 3.9 percent increase from 2011, up from 3.3 percent in the original estimate earlier this year.

Nationally, personal income was up 4.2 percent in 2012.
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