Rankings for Personal Income Gains By State for Second Quarter 2019

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State-by-state, the percentage change in personal income for the second quarter (Q2) of 2019 ranged from a high of 7.5% in Texas to unchanged in North Dakota. There were no declines in personal income for Q2 2019.

Personal income in South Dakota (Rank 49) rose by 1.3%.

In Texas, leading contributors to earnings gains were professional, scientific, and technical services. The same was true of five other fast-growing states– Washington (Rank 3), Utah (Rank 4), Nevada (Rank 5), Arizona (Rank 6) and Oregon (Rank 7).

Idaho saw the second largest increase in personal income at 7.4%, earning them Rank 2. Farming was the leading contributor to the earnings increase in Idaho.

Personal income gained by 7% in Washington, 6.9% in Utah, 6.3% in Nevada and Arizona, and 6.2% in Oregon.

Nationally, personal income gained at an annual rate of 5.4% for Q2 2019, down from 6.2% in Q1 2019. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported earnings rose 4.4% in Q2 after gaining by an upwardly revised 8.1% in Q1.

For the nation, leading contributors to earnings growth were professional, scientific, and technical services; finance and insurance; and state and local government were the leading contributors to overall growth in earnings.

Mining, which drove the leader states for ranking gross domestic product (GDP), was the leading contributor to the earnings increase in New Mexico (Rank 9).

Data for Q2 2019 is preliminary, while all other quarters are revised. However, prior data indicate growth specifically in 2019 is likely stronger than we currently believe.

Annually revised data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revealed wages grew even stronger than initially reported in 2017 and 2018, the first two years under the Trump Administration.

Meanwhile, the far more moderate gains reported for the tenure under Barack Obama, were revised further down. Compensation increased 42% more during the first two years of the Trump Administration than in latter two years under the Obama Administration in 2015 and 2016.

Employee compensation rose 4.5% and 5% in 2017 and 2018, respectively. That’s roughly $4.4 billion and $87.1 billion more than initially reported.

In the fourth quarter (Q4) 2018, wages posted the biggest gain (3.1%) since Q3 2008, hitting that mark for the first time since the Great Recession.

That trend has clearly continued into 2019.

Compensation rose $378 billion, or 3.4% in the first six months of 2019. That means employee compensation in the first six months of 2019 gained $150 billion more than all of 2016.