Global| Sep 24 2019State Personal Income
Summary
State personal income growth in the second quarter of 2019 was brisk, following even stronger growth in the first quarter (this release contains revisions consistent with the mid-summer revision of GDP). The regional pattern of growth [...]
State personal income growth in the second quarter of 2019 was brisk, following even stronger growth in the first quarter (this release contains revisions consistent with the mid-summer revision of GDP). The regional pattern of growth was comparable to that we have seen for employment; the swath of Western states from Washington to Texas all saw annual rates of growth above 6 percent (Texas led all states with a 7.5% annual growth rate). New York and Delaware were the only Eastern states to have growth rates of 6 percent or higher. North Dakota (unchanged), South Dakota (a 1.3% growth rate) and Iowa (a 2.3 percent rate of growth) stand out on the low side. Looking at income components, property income (dividends, rent, and interest) rose substantially faster than wages and proprietors' income. The shift to property types was highly pronounced in New York, which is a key reason the Empire State's overall income was so high compared to its neighbors. Texas' nation-leading pace, though, essentially reflected very rapid growth (7.9% at an annual rate) in labor-type income.
California, Texas, New York, and Florida are the only states with annual rates of personal income above $1 trillion; Pennsylvania is a distant 5th, at around $750 billion, more than $350 billion less than Florida's rate. Other states with incomes above $500 billion are Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan. Washington will quite likely soon become a member of that club. On the flip side, Vermont, both Dakotas, Wyoming, and Alaska report annual rates of personal income less than $50 billion. These enormous discrepancies (California's income is more than 70 times Vermont's) imply that the usual “ranking” of income growth by state is not especially illuminating.
Charles Steindel
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Charles Steindel has been editor of Business Economics, the journal of the National Association for Business Economics, since 2016. From 2014 to 2021 he was Resident Scholar at the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey. From 2010 to 2014 he was the first Chief Economist of the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, with responsibilities for economic and revenue projections and analysis of state economic policy. He came to the Treasury after a long career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he played a major role in forecasting and policy advice and rose to the rank of Senior Vice-President. He has served in leadership positions in a number of professional organizations. In 2011 he received the William F. Butler Award from the New York Association for Business Economics, is a fellow of NABE and of the Money Marketeers of New York University, and has received several awards for articles published in Business Economics. In 2017 he delivered Ramapo College's Sebastian J. Raciti Memorial Lecture. He is a member of the panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Survey of Professional Forecasters and of the Committee on Research in Income and Wealth. He has published papers in a range of areas, and is the author of Economic Indicators for Professionals: Putting the Statistics into Perspective. He received his bachelor's degree from Emory University, his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a National Association for Business Economics Certified Business EconomistTM.
More Economy in Brief
