CLICK HERE. / " title="RHODE ISLAND ranked 42nd in the nation in per capita personal income growth in the first quarter at 1.6 percent, although the state saw a 4.8 percent increase from the 2010 first quarter. For a more detailed version of this graphic, CLICK HERE. /"/>(Corrected, 12:30 p.m.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Personal income in Rhode Island grew 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011, bringing statewide personal income to 4.8 percent higher than a year earlier, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Rhode Islanders earned a total of $46.1 billion in personal income in the first quarter of 2011. In the first quarter of 2010, total personal income in the state was $44 billion, measured in current dollars.
Rhode Island ranked 42nd among the states for personal income growth between the last quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.
Only Massachusetts, in 45th place with 1.5 percent growth, ranked lower in New England. New Hampshire and Connecticut had the highest quarterly income growth in the region, at 2 percent, followed by Vermont (1.9 percent) and Maine (1.8 percent).
Rhode Island’s net earnings increased by 2 percent — $557 million — in the first quarter of the year.
Statewide earnings jumped highest in the durable goods industry, which showed 3.9 percent growth. Farming earnings declined 22.4 percent during the quarter. The information, construction, finance and insurance and real estate, rental and leasing industries also saw earnings drops in Rhode Island, along with state and local government jobs.
Nationally, states showed income growth of 1.8 percent during the first quarter of 2011 and 4.7 percent between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011.
Income growth in the first quarter of the year was mostly due to the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, which included a reduction in the Social Security personal contribution rate, according to a BEA press release.
The only industry to see a national quarterly earnings decline was real estate, rental and leasing.
While durable goods manufacturing showed the strongest growth nationwide of any industry this quarter, earnings in that sector are still 4.7 percent lower than in the second quarter of 2008, when they were at their highest point. In Rhode Island, the durable goods industry showed earnings of $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2008, compared with $1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2010.
The BEA estimated that inflation increased from 0.4 percent in the last quarter of 2010 to 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated statewide personal income numbers as per-capita personal income.
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