Personal Income and Outlays, October 2019

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 $3.3 billion (less than 0.1 percent) in October according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $12.6 billion (-0.1 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $39.7 billion (0.3 percent).

Real DPI decreased 0.3 percent in October and Real PCE increased 0.1 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent.

This news release includes revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for government social insurance for April through June 2019 (second quarter). These estimates reflect the incorporation of newly available second-quarter private wages and salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

The increase in personal income in October primarily reflected an increase in wages and salaries that was partially offset by decreases in personal interest income and in farm proprietors’ income (table 3). BEA adjusted October wages and salaries upward by $7.2 billion (at an annual rate) to account for strike pay and payments associated with contract ratification for members of the United Automobile Workers.

The $11.3 billion increase in real PCE in October reflected a $16.4 billion increase in spending for services that was partially offset by a $7.4 billion decrease in spending for goods (table 7). Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was spending for household electricity and gas. Within goods, new motor vehicles was the leading contributor to the decrease. Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.6U.

Personal outlays increased $43.1 billion in October (table 3). Personal saving was $1.29 trillion in October and the personal saving rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 7.8 percent (table 1).

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for April through September. Revised and previously published changes from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and PCE, are shown below.