Personal Income Unchanged for April

The government reported this morning that personal income was unchanged in April. Economists were expecting an increase of 0.1%. So far, the market doesn’t seem terribly interested.

The stat in the personal income report that I find most interesting is real personal income after transfer payments. That’s a mouthful but it’s one of the better gauges for how the economy is performing. It rose by 0.3% in April.

Here’s a look at the data series:

The big jump at the end of last year was due to the dividend payouts. What I find interesting is that, looking past the December spike, the rising trend is continuing.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 31st, 2013 at 10:08 am

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