Here's a surprise: U.S. personal incomes rose in April

Posted Jun 1st 2009 4:20PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Good news, Economic Data, Personal Finance, Housing

Would you like some good news? Well here it is and its real, not just smoke rings. First, for the first time in four months incomes rose 0.5% to $58.2 billion. The gains came mainly from lower taxes and the effects of the government stimulus packages. Secondly, the savings rate (what is left over after spending) rose from 4.5% in March to 5.7% in April to a 14-year high.

Let's keep the good news going. Next, export orders jumped in May to their highest level since the Lehman collapse. This indicates that world trade is unfreezing and that goods are moving again across the globe. Now add to this the fact that construction spending rose in April by .8% to $968.7 billion. Private construction rose 1.4%, public construction was up .6% and residential construction rose by 0.7%. However it is still down 10.7% from a year ago. So there is a glimmer of hope that the housing market may be reaching bottom.

Now for the weaker numbers. Employment and inventories are still shrinking but at slower rates. US manufacturing is still also shrinking at a slower rate. Supply management's factory index rose to 42.8% from 40.1% the previous month. Prices did rise a bit. They were up 0.1% after a dip in April. Excluding food and energy prices were up 0.3%. This seems to be a cruel joke because food and energy are where the increases are coming from. The price of gas has risen 50 cents a gallon in just a few months and food bills are not going down.

To sum up, we have a pile of good news to report. The real kicker is: can we start to put 6 million people back to work again? Let's hope so.

Do you see any improvement in your incomes or savings?

Tags: inthenews, US personal incomes and savings rises, UsPersonalIncomesAndSavingsRises

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-02-2009 @ 7:20AM

TX CHL Instructor said...

Things will get much worse before they get better. Massive subsidies that reward moronic behavior make downturns worse.

What we are seeing now is the call of the sheep to the slaughter.