COEUR d'ALENE - At the height of the recession, personal income decreased 0.5 percent in Kootenai County and 2.5 percent throughout the state, according to a press release from the Idaho Department of Labor.

In 2008, countywide personal income - residents' total wages, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments (such as Social Security and pensions) - totaled about $4.45 billion, IDL reported, citing newly-released data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

One year later, with the economy still reeling, the number dropped to roughly $4.42 billion.

Shoshone County's personal income fell 1.2 percent, from about $394 million in 2008 to $390 million in 2009, IDL said.

Statewide personal income totaled $50.5 billion in 2008 and $49.2 billion the following year. Idaho's 2.5-percent drop marked the first decline in personal income since 1953.

Other states fared worse: Nevada plummeted 4.9 percent in the 2008-09 period, Michigan fell 3.1 percent and Wyoming sustained a 2.7 percent nosedive, IDL spokesman Bob Fick reported.

Compiling income data is a time-consuming process, explained Fick. The Bureau of Economic Analysis includes wages, pensions, disability payments, unemployment benefits and other income sources in its broad analysis - hence the late-arriving numbers.

A handful of Idaho counties increased their personal income between 2008-09, IDL said: Bannock, Bear Lake, Boise, Camas, Clearwater, Custer, Fremont and Madison.

Many of those increases resulted from high unemployment, pension or retirement benefits, IDL noted.

Custer County was an exception - its income jumped from about $135 million to $142 million, a spike of 5.2 percent. The Thompson Creek molybdenum mine, southwest of Challis, posted a $6 million increase in wages in 2009, IDL said.

Since the gloomiest days of the recession, the economic climate in Kootenai County has evidently improved.

From 2009 to 2010, county employment decreased 1.8 percent and wages fell 0.3 percent, IDL Regional Economist Alivia Body said. The year before, employment had fallen 7.2 percent while wages had dropped 6.6 percent.

"Average employment has declined at a lesser rate from 2009-10," Body said. "Tough to say, but if Kootenai County only declined 0.5 (percent) from 2008-09, I would venture to guess that it would probably go back to increasing."

Personal income data is not a perfect measuring stick for economic health, Body said. Average pay offers a clearer picture, in her opinion.

The average Kootenai County worker earned roughly $33,300 in 2010, according to the Department of Labor website. In 2009, the average was about $33,250.

The 2008 mark was about $33,600.

Idaho personal income numbers are also heading north, a March press release from IDL reported. The total income for 2010 was $50.6 billion, up from 2009.