The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today released personal income and outlays data for June 2012 (PDF). Personal income rose 0.5 percent from May to June, slightly exceeding private-sector expectations of an 0.4 percent rise. Nominal personal consumption expenditures (PCE) was unchanged and real PCE decreased 0.1 percent, the first decline since August, 2011. Nominal disposable personal income (DPI) rose 0.4 percent and real DPI increased 0.3 percent. The personal saving rate as a percentage of DPI was 4.4 percent in June.
"Today’s release shows that personal income grew by 3.5 percent over the past year, and that it has increased 30 out of the past 34 months," said Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. "Most of these gains have come from increases in private sector wages, which rose 4.2 percent. However, personal income growth continues to be weighed down by several factors, including flat growth in income from government employment. Further, our economy continues to face other headwinds, including the economic turmoil in Europe. Therefore, it is critical that we continue to push for policies that will grow our economy and support our middle class, such as the remaining proposals in President Obama’s American Jobs Act, which independent experts have said could create one million jobs. Our prosperity has always come from an economy built on a strong and growing middle class, which is why we must take action to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, make our tax code simpler and fairer for small businesses, and extend the tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses.”
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
