U.S. Personal Income Rises 4.9% in 1994

Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota, helped by record crop production last year, led the way as U.S. personal income rose an average of 4.9% in 1994 over 1993, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The Great Lakes states also had an outstanding year, helped by a surge in production of cars and other big-ticket durable goods, the department said.

Overall, personal-income increases in a dozen states were at least a full percentage point above the 4.9% national average. Among them, Iowa had the best showing, at 10.9%, followed by South Dakota, 9.5%, and North Dakota, 8.6%.

Others in the top 12: Michigan, 8.5%; Mississippi, 7.4%; Minnesota, 7%; West Virginia, 6.4%; Ohio and Louisiana, 6.3%; Wisconsin and Indiana, 6.1%, and Missouri, 5.9%.

The slowest-growing states were Colorado, 3.9%; Washington, 3.8%; Texas, 3.7%; Wyoming, 3.6%; Alaska, 3.1%; Montana, 2.8%; California, 2.7%, and Hawaii, 2.4%.

The Commerce Department said one measure of inflation tied to gross domestic product rose 2.4% last year, the smallest increase since 1966.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said the labor market showed more signs of softening last week, as the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits shot up to the highest level in nearly four months.

“Jobless claims have been edging up since the beginning of year,” noted economist Bruce Steinberg of Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. “They seem to point to some slowing in the labor market.”

New applications for unemployment insurance shot up 8,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 349,000, highest since the 356,000 recorded for the week ended Jan. 7.

The increase was the biggest since claims jumped 29,000 in the week ended Feb. 11. It was the sixth advance in the past eight weeks. The less-volatile four-week moving average of new claims jumped 2,750 during the period ended April 22 to 344,000, the highest since the period ended July 30, 1994.