Personal Income and Outlays, January 2018

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 $64.7 billion (0.4 percent) in January according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $134.8 billion (0.9 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $31.2 billion (0.2 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.6 percent in January and Real PCE decreased 0.1 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent.

Increases in the January estimates of disposable personal income and the personal saving rate mostly result from a decrease in personal current taxes, which reflect the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). BEA estimates that the TCJA reduced personal current taxes by $115.5 billion at an annual rate. BEA’s preliminary estimates of the effects of the TCJA are based in part on projections prepared by the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis. For more information on the TCJA’s effects on personal taxes, please see “How will the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act impact personal taxes?"

January estimates of wages and salaries were adjusted up by $30.0 billion to account for bonuses paid by businesses that are not included in the monthly source data in the Current Employment Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This adjustment reflects one-time bonuses reported publicly in response to the TCJA and was derived based on news releases covering estimates of the number of employees receiving bonuses and payment amounts. BEA will release QCEW-based estimates of wages and salaries, that will include both regular and TCJA-related bonus activity, for the first quarter of 2018 on July 27, 2018.

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

The $17.0 billion decrease in real PCE in January reflected a decrease of $24.6 billion in spending for goods and a partially offsetting $4.8 billion increase in spending for services (table 7). Within goods, new motor vehicle sales was the leading contributor to the decrease. Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found in Table 2.3.6U.

Personal outlays increased $33.7 billion in January (table 3). Personal saving was $464.4 billion in January and the personal saving rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 3.2 percent (table 1).

2017 Personal Income and Outlays

Personal income (table 6) increased 3.1 percent in 2017 (that is, from the 2016 annual level to the 2017 annual level), compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in 2016. DPI increased 2.9 percent in 2017 compared with an increase of 2.6 percent in 2016. In 2017, PCE increased 4.5 percent, compared with an increase of 4.0 percent in 2016.

Real DPI increased 1.2 percent in 2017, compared with an increase of 1.4 percent in 2016. Real PCE (table 8) increased 2.7 percent, the same increase as in 2016.

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

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.