Northeastern states and California trail nation in income growth.

WASHINGTON -- California and most states in the Northeast had the slowest growth in income during the year that ended with the second quarter, while several western and Rocky Mountain states posted the biggest gains, a government report released yesterday shows.

"Seven of the 11 states with the fastest growth in personal income from the second quarter of 1992 to the second quarter of 1993 are in the Far West, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain regions," says the report, released by the Commerce Department.

California posted the slowest household income growth during the year in question, with a 3.2% gain, the report says. The state's last place showing resulted in part from sizable declines in manufacturing and construction incomes, according to the report.

Rhode Island came in second to last with a 3.9% year-over-year increase in income, the report says. Maine, Massachusetts, and Louisiana were tied for third worst, as all three saw their incomes rise by 4%, the report says.

Sharing a 600-mile border with California, Nevada posted the highest year-over-year income growth with a 10.7% advance, thanks in part to huge gains in manufacturing and construction income, the report says. Utah came in second with 8.6% income growth, according to the report.

"Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon also had well-above-average growth rates," the report says. "In all of these states, payroll increases were strong in durables manufacturing, construction, and private service-type industries."

For all 50 states, average year-over-year income growth was 5.5%, the report says. Most Northeastern states experienced below-average income growth, while a few in the region were right around the average, data in the report shows.

Connecticut, which has the highest per capita income in the nation, had the highest year-over-year income growth within the Northeast with a 3.7% gain, the report says.

New York state saw 4.8% year-over-year income growth, the report says. A large drop in durable goods manufacturing income contributed to New York's below-average performance, the report showed.

However, New York's income growth just during the second quarter was one of the highest in the nation, the report notes. "New York, Connecticut, Washington, New Jersey, Utah, Florida, and Nevada had the fastest growth in personal income in the second quarter of 1993."

Meanwhile, incomes in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota fell in the second quarter, the report says. "The declines reflected lower federal farm subsidy payments," the report says. States on average saw their household incomes grow by 2.3% in the second quarter, after declining 1.4% in the first quarter, according to the report.

"The turnaround in personal income growth in most of the fastest-growing states, as for the nation, was primarily due to the timing of bonus payments, some of which had been shifted previously from the first quarter of 1993 to the fourth quarter of 1992," the report says.

This helped to depress incomes in the first quarter, the report notes.

"If the bonus payments had not been shifted from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, personal income for the nation would have increased 0.7% in the second quarter after increasing 1.6% in the first quarter," the report says.

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