DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Ohio was one of 13 states that saw personal income lag behind inflation in 2008, according to a report the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released Tuesday, March 24.

The Buckeye State joined Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Nevada in states that saw inflation increase faster than income.

Still, it could be worse. While Ohio saw its per capita personal income increase only 3 percent in 2008, that was far more progress than Georgia, which saw only a 1.4 percent increase or Arizona, at the bottom with an increase of 0.4 percent in 2008.

Ohio did worse in 2008 than in 2007, when income grew 4.4 percent over the previous year. Per capita personal income in Ohio in 2008 was $35,511, up from $34,468 in 2007.

The state's population, meanwhile, is up, growing 0.1 percent from 2007 to 2008, compared to the previous year, when it shrunk .3 percent.

David Lenze, an economist with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said Ohio's economic picture was a dramatic contrast from oil-producing states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Alaska, which all saw much larger growth between 2007 and 2008.

Alaska, for example, saw an 8.2 percent growth over the same time period.

Overall, Ohio nearly mirrored the nation's per capita income growth, which was 2.9 percent in 2008. Nationally, U.S. growth was the slowest it's been since 2003, according to the analysis.