Idaho's Personal Income Grows
Idaho prospers in a lagging national economy
The nations lagging economy has taken a toll on the nations personal income. Idahoans remains somewhat isolated from the rest of the nation when it comes to personal income. In 2007 Idaho ranked fourth in the nation for fourth quarter growth. Idaho's growth increased 1.3 percent, a third of a percentage higher than the national average. The information was reported in the release of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday March 26, 2008.
With strong agriculture commodity prices and growth in personal services, Idaho offsett declines in construction and manufacturing in the final three months of 2007 to keep Idaho's personal income growth strong. Total income, the total of all wages, business owner profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security rose to $46.8 billion in Idaho for all of 2007. This follows significant downward revisions in the income estimates for the previous two years.
Idaho saw a $3 billion increase in personal income growth from 2006 to 2007. More than $1.7 billion was in "net earnings" from higher wages, salaries and proprietors' income.
Agriculture was the largest contributer to Idaho's higher net earnings, providing $121 million of the increase. Other strong industries are and their contributions are:
Health Care added another $105 million
Professional and technical services added another $78 million
Manufacturing accounted for $87 million
Construction added $27 million to round out Idaho's growth.
The other $1.3 billion increase in 2007 personal income was split between higher investment earnings and larger Social Security checks and other transfer payments.
Idaho's growth in view of a sluggish national economy has many experts impressed. In the early 1980's Idaho depended almost exclusively on agriculture as is primary contributer to Idaho's economic growth. While agriculture remains Idaho's leading industry, it now has a very balanced economic base with the strong addition of health care, technology and professional services.