Personal income growth slowed between 2011 and 2012 across Idaho's metro areas. That’s according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
On average, incomes grew by 4.2 percent across the nation’s metro areas. None of Idaho’s metro areas met or exceeded that average.
Personal income in the Boise metro area marked the largest growth among Idaho’s metros at 4 percent. On a per capita basis, personal income in the Boise metro area grew just 2.4 percent from 2011 to 2012.
Eastern Idaho metro areas saw the smallest growth in personal income. The Idaho Falls area measured 2.6 percent growth, and the Pocatello area measured 1.8 percent.
Idaho Labor Department economist Andrew Townsend says experts have had a hard time grasping why incomes aren't rising at a rate they'd expect to see after a recession. “We really would have expected to have a higher increase in 2012," says Townsend. "But with keeping with the national average, that is the flavor of this recovery – just muted, not real exciting growth."
Thursday’s BEA data release also includes revised personal income figures for 2001-2012. In those revisions, Idaho’s per capita personal income was slightly higher than previous estimates. The gap between the national average and Idaho’s average narrowed in 2012 and 2011, but it widened in 2010 and 2009.
Under the BEA's revised data, Idahoans earned 78.8 percent of the average U.S. income in 2012.
Copyright 2013 Boise State Public Radio