Maine’s Private Sector Sets New Low
Today the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released new personal income data for the first quarter of 2010. Unfortunately, this brings more bad news for Mainers. As shown in Chart 1, Maine’s private sector share of personal income for the first quarter of 2010 was at a new all-time low of 63.04 percent–just edging out the previous low of 63.13 percent set only three quarters ago (second quarter 2009).
Chart 2 shows the culprit behind this crowding-out of the private sector–the Orwellian American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In the first quarter of 2010, the ARRA pumped $367 million into Maine’s economy. This is down from the peak of $465 million in the second quarter of 2009. None the less, $367 million is more money than the total earnings of Mainers employed in Farming ($182 million), Utilities ($189 million)and just shy of Real Estate and Rental and Leasing ($377 million).
