We have modified our response to this truncation, and this article supersedes a version written in December 2016 (see related article).

Previously, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis conducted a benchmark revision on the national industry estimates and truncated them to 1998Q1. They later elected to make the regional estimates consistent, by deleting previously reported history over the interval 1990Q1 to 1997Q4 (these periods are no longer contained in the official data files). In a direct communication, they explained:

The changes to the state quarterly personal income time-series are an extension of changes/revisions that were done by BEA to the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) during the Comprehensive revision released on July 30, 2013. As part of the NIPA revisions, several changes to recognize expenditures by business on research and development as fixed investment; to recognize expenditures by business on entertainment, literary, and other artistic originals as fixed investment; to measure transactions of defined benefit (DB) pension plans on an accrual-accounting basis by recognizing the costs of unfunded liabilities; and other NIPA benchmark changes caused significant revisions to various personal income components estimated by industry. The NIPAs extended these benchmark industry changes on NAICS back to 1998 and on SIC back to 1929.

Because of the wide range and scope of the revisions to the national industry estimates and because the NIPAs only extended industry estimates on a NAICS basis back to 1998, the decision was made to make the regional estimates consistent with the NIPAs and only update the regional NAICS estimates back to 1998.

In response, we have (a) archived all data published prior to the methodological change using an "_13" specifier and (b) truncated the established active series to 1998Q1. Properties are otherwise unchanged.

The active series (start 1998) reside in the historical catalog (United States » Income » Personal Income » Quarterly » State » Personal Income) and the predecessors (1990 to 2013) under the associated discontinued node. They include, for example:

• YPEAG_13Q.CT = [DISCONTINUED] Income: Forestry; fishing; related activities; and other, (Mil. USD, SAAR) - for Connecticut
• YPE42_13Q.PA = [DISCONTINUED] Income: Wholesale trade, (Mil. USD, SAAR) - for Pennsylvania (1990-2013)
• YPE42Q.PA    = Income: Wholesale trade, (Mil. USD, SAAR) - for Pennsylvania (1998-2016)
• YPECQ.TN     = Income: Total compensation, (Mil. USD, SAAR) - for Tennessee

Because catalog locations are subject to change, the upper-right search box on DataBuffet.com provides a "find in catalog" mode that accepts a mnemonic.

Please be aware that:

• We have further differentiated the archive and active series with notations in their "source" metadata.
• Active series in this dataset are classified under NAICS. Prior reporting with longer history (as early as 1948 to 2002) under the prior classification, SIC, is available, but is banked separately in Data Buffet; for example, as YPEWAGQ_SIC.AK.
• We performed the same process on the quarterly series in April (see related article).