Idaho Personal Income Falls for Third Straight Quarter

Personal income in Idaho fell during the first three months of 2009 - the third straight quarter total wages, business owner profits and investment earnings have declined.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated total personal income for the first quarter at $48.3 billion on an annualized basis, down from $48.7 billion in the final three months of 2008. While total personal income was up 3 percent last year overall, it peaked during the spring of 2008 and has been sliding ever since.

The first quarter report for 2009 was only the fourth time since World War II that Idaho’s personal income has fallen for three straight quarters.

Only eight other states had larger declines than the 0.8 percent drop Idaho recorded from the last quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of this year.

Year over year,  Idaho was one of only seven states to see first quarter 2009 income fall below the first quarter 2008 - down 0.3 percent.

Wages and business profits accounted for nearly all the income loss in the first quarter – $376 million – most of it coming in payroll declines. Total earnings in manufacturing were off $125 million from the fourth quarter, construction was down $98 million and farm earnings dropped $95 million. Gains in government and health care were far too modest to offset those loses.

Lower interest rates and smaller corporate dividends depressed investment earnings, dropping them $410 million below the fourth quarter 2008 level.

The overall income decline would have been substantially greater had it not been for a record infusion of unemployment insurance benefits during the first three months of 2009. More than $168 million in jobless benefits was paid to over 75,000 unemployed workers during January, February and March. Less than $70 million in benefits was paid during the same quarter in 2008, which had been the record year for benefit payments until now. Those transfer payments, which also include pensions and Social Security, were up $382 million.

Nationally, total personal income was off 0.5 percent from the last quarter of 2008, but compared to the first three months of 2008, personal income nationwide was up 0.8 percent.

A state-by-state personal income table follows.