Personal income in the United States saw a decline of $109.6 billion, or 0.4 percent, in May, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The report also noted that disposable personal income (DPI) fell by $125.0 billion, representing a 0.6 percent decrease, while personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased by $29.3 billion, or 0.1 percent.
In terms of personal outlays, which include PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments, there was a reduction of $27.6 billion in May. Personal saving for the month stood at $1.01 trillion with a saving rate of 4.5 percent.
The primary contributors to the decrease in current-dollar personal income were reductions in government social benefits and farm proprietors' income; however, these were partially offset by an increase in compensation.
The drop in current-dollar PCE was attributed to a $49.2 billion decrease in spending on goods, although this was somewhat counterbalanced by a $19.9 billion rise in service expenditures.
The report detailed various percentage changes from April to May: current-dollar personal income dropped by 0.4 percent; current-dollar DPI decreased by 0.6 percent; real DPI fell by 0.7 percent; current-dollar PCE declined by 0.1 percent; and real PCE went down by 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, the PCE price index rose by 0.1 percent and the index excluding food and energy increased by 0.2 percent.
Technical notes highlighted that decreases in Social Security payments were influenced by the Social Security Fairness Act and that farm proprietors' income reductions reflected payment patterns from the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program under the American Relief Act.
Compensation increases were driven primarily by private wages and salaries according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Employment Statistics (CES). Wages and salaries grew notably within services-producing industries ($35.9 billion) and goods-producing industries ($7.5 billion).