R.I. personal incomes rebound in 2Q, but farming earnings drop

AFTER A SHARP DECLINE IN the first quarter of 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Monday that Rhode Island personal incomes rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter, but remains among the New England states with the slowest personal income growth rates. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
AFTER A SHARP DECLINE IN the first quarter of 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Monday that Rhode Island personal incomes rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter, but remains among the New England states with the slowest personal income growth rates. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

PROVIDENCE – Personal incomes in Rhode Island rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter of 2013, after dropping 0.8 percent in the first quarter, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Personal income in the Ocean State totaled $49.2 billion in the second quarter on an annualized basis, a gain of $386 million from the first quarter total of $48.8 billion. In the second quarter of 2012, Rhode Island reported annualized total personal income of $47.7 billion.

Rhode Island’s 0.8 percent change in second-quarter personal income was one of the lowest in New England. Only Maine, with a 0.7 percent gain in personal income, ranked lower.

In the Massachusetts, second-quarter personal income totaled $378.9 billion on an annualized basis, an increase of $3.6 billion, or 1 percent, from $375.3 billion in the first quarter. Second-quarter personal income in 2012 totaled an annualized $369.1 billion in the Bay State.

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New Hampshire boasted the strongest personal income gains in the region, with a 1.3 percent rise, followed by Vermont with 1.2 percent change in personal income. Massachusetts, at a 1 percent gain, matched the U.S. national average, while Connecticut fell in at 0.9 percent.

All six New England states posted a decline in personal income in the first quarter of 2013, when the national average for state personal income fell 1.3 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis attributed the first-quarter declines to the expiration of the “payroll tax holiday” and the acceleration of bonuses and personal dividends to the fourth quarter of 2012 in anticipation of changes in individual tax rates.

Second-quarter gains in Maine and Vermont offset their respective first-quarter declines, while Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire failed to make up for their first-quarter losses in the second quarter.

For all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, the 1 percent increase in personal income followed a 1.3 percent decline in the first quarter of 2013, meaning that the $14 trillion level reached in the second quarter did not make up the loss in the first quarter, either, falling short of the annualized $14.1 trillion level in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The BEA defines personal income as the sum of net earnings by place of residence, property income and personal current transfer receipts.

In Rhode Island, second-quarter seasonally adjusted earnings dropped for three industries – farming (11.23 percentage points), educational services (1.15 percentage points) and federal and state government (0.74 percentage points and 0.08 percentage points, respectively).

The Ocean State’s arts, entertainment and recreation industry was most improved in the second quarter, increasing 3.2 percentage points.

Massachusetts saw second-quarter earnings drops in farming (10.11 percentage points), educational services (0.25 percentage points) and federal and military government (1.62 percentage points and 0.15 percentage points, respectively), while the state’s forestry and fishing industry gained 2.55 percentage points.

Nationwide, second-quarter earnings dropped in farming (14.61 percentage points), educational services (0.49 percentage points) and federal and state government (0.78 percentage points and 0.04 percentage points, respectively).

The largest gain nationally was in the real estate, rental and leasing industry, which gained 1.62 percentage points in the second quarter.

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