Personal income in Connecticut grew at one of the slowest paces in the nation during the first quarter of 2019, federal officials say.
For the January-March period, Connecticut ranked No. 48 in the country in personal income growth at just 1.5 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
Personal income nationally climbed by 3.4 percent during the first quarter, a deceleration from the 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter last year, BEA said.
The state’s modest income hike in the period ranked last in New England, where wages grew by an average of 2.6 percent in the six states.
Industries leading Connecticut’s wage growth included health care and social assistance (a 0.47 percent gain), professional, scientific, and technical services (0.33 percent) and state and local government (0.20 percent). In total, workers earned more than $269.3 billion in the quarter.
Income growth in Connecticut was far slower to begin 2019 vs. 2018, when income rose by an average of 3.9 percent.
Connecticut’s poor ranking also comes months after BEA reported that the state’s personal income growth rate ranked No. 42 in 2018.
Nationally, the change in wage growth during the first quarter ranged from 5.6 percent in West Virginia to a 0.6 percent decrease in South Dakota.
