Small Town News

Idaho Q1 personal income up on rising business profits, farm earnings

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A decline in investment earnings offset rising business profits to push down Idaho's total personal income for the first three months of 2013.

Estimates released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis put personal income - the value of all wages, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security, unemployment benefits and pensions - at $54.7 billion on an annualized basis. That was down 0.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.

Farm income was up 0.8 percent while nonfarm income, which accounts for 95 percent of Idaho's total personal income, was off one percent from the last three months of 2012.

But the decline in Idaho was not as bad as the reduction nationwide. National personal income fell 1.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. Investment earnings were off substantially from the previous three months, and wages fell fractionally.

In Idaho, investment earnings were down 4.2 percent from the final three months of 2012, a tenth of a percent greater reduction than reported nationally. Wages rose three-tenths of a percentage point while business profits were up 1.7 percent - 0.8 percent on the farm and 2.1 percent in the rest of the economy.

Nationally, wages fell three-tenths of a percentage point while business profits - both on and off the farm - were up 2.4 percent.

While Idaho's wage increase was fractional, it was sixth highest in the nation. Twenty-seven states recorded declines in wages.

At the same time, the increase in Idaho business profits ranked 34th nationally.



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