Personal Income and Outlays, January 2017

Historical release narrative reproduced from the official public-domain U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis source. Statistical tables, charts, standard technical appendices and administrative material are omitted; formatting is adapted for reading. Figures retain the release's original vintage and may have been revised. Consult the linked source for the complete release and current data.

Personal income increased $63.0 billion (0.4 percent) in January according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $40.1 billion (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $22.2 billion (0.2 percent).

Real DPI decreased 0.2 percent in January and Real PCE decreased 0.3 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent.

The increase in personal income in January primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries and personal current transfer receipts that were partially offset by an increase in contributions for government social insurance, a subtraction in the calculation of personal income (table 3).

The decrease in real PCE in January primarily reflected decreases in spending for services, notably utilities, and durable goods (table 7).

Personal outlays increased $24.0 billion in January (table 3). Personal saving was $795.7 billion in January and the personal saving rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 5.5 percent (table 1).

2016 Personal Income and Outlays

Personal income (table 6) increased 3.6 percent in 2016 (that is, from the 2015 annual level to the 2016 annual level), compared with an increase of 4.4 percent in 2015. DPI increased 3.9 percent in 2016, compared with an increase of 3.8 percent in 2015. In 2016, PCE increased 3.8 percent, compared with an increase of 3.5 percent in 2015.

Real DPI increased 2.8 percent in 2016, compared with an increase of 3.5 percent in 2015. Real PCE (table 8) increased 2.7 percent, compared with an increase of 3.2 percent.

Annual estimates of personal income and disposable personal income were revised up 0.1 percentage point from the estimates presented last month; annual estimates of personal consumption expenditures were unrevised.

Updates

Estimates have been updated for July through December. The percent change from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar DPI and PCE -- revised and as published in last month's release -- are shown below.

QCEW Data Included in the Third Quarter of 2016

This news release includes revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for government social insurance for July through September 2016 (third quarter). These estimates reflect the incorporation of the most recently available third-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.