Unemployment Benefits Keep Idaho Personal Income Growing

Unemployment insurance payments for Idaho’s record number of jobless workers kept total personal income in the state growing last summer, the second quarter in a row that unemployment benefits were responsible for modest income growth.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday estimated Idaho's personal income – the total of all wages, business owner profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security and jobless benefits – for the July-September quarter at just under $49 billion, on an annualized basis. That was up 0.24 percent from the revised estimate for the spring quarter, nearly matching the national increase of 0.3 percent.

The growth rate, while fractional, ranked 27th among the states and marked the second straight quarter that personal income has grown in Idaho, but the total was still 3.1 percent below the third quarter 2008. Idaho’s total personal income peaked at an annualized all-time high $50.7 billion in spring 2008, boosted by the injection of tens of millions of dollars in federal tax rebates.

The federal government estimated that personal income rose by $116 million on an annualized basis between the second and third quarters in Idaho because of persistently higher unemployment benefits.

The estimate found that a modest increase in third quarter wages and business profits was completely offset by the loss of the one-time $250 economic stimulus payment during the spring quarter to every Social Security beneficiary. That left the high level of unemployment benefits responsible for the quarterly income gain.

Idaho’s unemployed workers, who totaled nearly 69,000 in November, have collected more than $610 million in state and federal benefits so far this year – money that has enabled many to keep up their mortgage or rent payments, buy food, pay utility bills and patronize local stores. The previous record for unemployment payments in Idaho was $247 million in 2008. In 2006, as the Idaho economy was heading to the top of its expansion, less than $105 million in benefits was paid.

Health care and professional and technical services posted slight wage and profit gains from the second to third quarters. More fractionally gains in finance, transportation and the military offset a marked decline in state and local government wages while the other economic sectors were essentially flat.

A state-by-state personal income table follows.