Washington Research Council economist Kriss Sjoblom has been tracking changes in personal income, consumer spending and savings rates over the months of the pandemic. The trends have been fascinating, particularly the spike in savings. His latest post adds a chart on government social benefits as a share of personal income. We’ve pasted the chart in below.
Sjoblom explains,
This month I am adding a third chart showing total government social benefits as a percent of personal income. (Total benefits are the sum of the unemployment insurance and other social benefit numbers shown on the first chart.) In February 2020, prior to the pandemic, government social benefits provided 16.6% of personal income. Federal relief bills took the share to 31.0% in April 2020, to 26.3% in January of 2021 and to 33.3% in March 2021. In June 2021, government social benefits provided 19.5% of personal income.
Rather than reproduce Sjoblom’s work here, we encourage you to click through to his other charts.
