Personal Income and Outlays, March 2022

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 $107.2 billion (0.5 percent) in March, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $89.7 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $185.0 billion (1.1 percent).

Real DPI decreased 0.4 percent in March and Real PCE increased 0.2 percent; goods decreased 0.5 percent and services increased 0.6 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.9 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent (table 9).

In March, federal pandemic-related assistance programs continued to taper off. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the personal income and outlays estimate because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified. For more information, see Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income.

The increase in personal income in March primarily reflected an increase in compensation, proprietors’ income, personal income receipts on assets, and government social benefits (table 3). Within compensation, the increase reflected increases in both private and government wages and salaries. The increase in proprietors' income was in farm income, reflecting increased crop and livestock prices. The increase in personal income receipts on assets was led by personal interest income. The increase in government social benefits was led by Medicare and Medicaid.

The $185.0 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in March reflected an increase of $114.6 billion in spending for services and an increase of $70.4 billion in spending for goods (table 3). Within services, increases were widespread across all subcomponents and led by “other” services (which includes international travel) as well as food services and accommodations. Within goods, an increase in nondurable goods (led by gasoline and other energy goods) was partly offset by a decrease in spending on durable goods (led by motor vehicles and parts). Spending on food services as well as most categories of goods reflect updated Census retail sales data that were recently benchmarked to results from the most recent annual survey. Detailed information on monthly PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.5U.

Personal outlays increased $188.9 billion in March (table 3). Personal saving was $1.15 trillion in March and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 6.2 percent (table 1).

The PCE price index for March increased 6.6 percent from one year ago, reflecting increases in both goods and services (table 11). Energy prices increased 33.9 percent while food prices increased 9.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index for March increased 5.2 percent from one year ago.

BEA will release results from the 2022 annual update of the National Economic Accounts, which includes the National Income and Product Accounts as well as the Industry Economic Accounts, on September 29, 2022. This update will present revised statistics for GDP, GDP by Industry, and gross domestic income that cover the first quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2022. Updated monthly personal income and outlays will be released on September 30, along with the August 2022 estimate. Refer to BEA's recent blog post, "National, Industry, and State Annual Updates Will Be United in 2022," for additional detail. More information on the 2022 annual update will be included on BEA’s website as well as in a forthcoming Survey of Current Business article, “GDP and the Economy.”

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for January and February. 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 provided below.