If your budget is a little tighter this year for holiday shopping, you are not alone. Updated quarterly numbers show personal income is down, on average.
Personal income declined by 1.1 percent on average in the third quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s a change from second quarter when personal income grew in almost every state.
South Dakota still leads the nation, growing faster and further than other states with booms in farm earnings and the finance and insurance industries.
Arizona ranks middle of the pack, with average incomes growing at about 1 percent last quarter.
Nearby New Mexico is being dragged down by various mining industries, which fell 1.4 percent nationally last quarter, the eighth-consecutive quarterly decline.
The report says lower mining earnings contributed to below-average earnings and below-average personal-income growth in five states: New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
