Yes, that’s more money in your pocket. New estimates from the Commerce Department show that personal income increased for the second consecutive month in June.
Connecticut remains at the forefront when it comes to personal income growth. It was one of only five states that outpaced the national average for the first quarter of the year. Still, the national increase in personal income fell below analysts’ predictions, rising slower than in the beginning of the year.
Personal income rose by 0.4 percent in June, the same as in May. It did not reach the 0.8 percent increases seen in January or March.
Although there are no indicators that personal income will decline in the future, the spikes seen earlier in the year may have been an anomaly, said Janet Kmitch of the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
“It’s really returned to a more normal level in June and May,” Kmitch said. “I don’t think it was a case of it dropping off considerably from a previous level.”
The estimates for the first few months will be replaced with real data next month, as information about wages and salaries becomes available, she said.
For Connecticut, personal income has steadily increased since the beginning of 2005 to the point where the state had the greatest jump in New England.
The national average for personal income was an increase of 2.2 percent, and 2.3 percent for New England.
Connecticut blew past that with a 3.5 percent increase.
New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Delaware joined Connecticut in pushing past the national average.
The common link between the five? Their ties to the financial services industry. David Lenze, senior economist with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said the geographical concentration of personal income growth in those five states are directly related to an unusually strong first quarter for the finance industry.
The finance industry accounted for 28 percent of the nation’s personal income growth, Lenze said, compared with just 9 percent for the fourth quarter of 2006.
As one would expect, the gross majority of Connecticut’s personal income growth came from the finance and insurance sectors with a 1.98 percent increase in earnings while no other sector went up by more than 0.10 percent.
