There are many price indices for the US economy. Most people focus on the consumer price index (CPI) because it’s relevant to individual members of the economy. Another index, often misunderstood,* is the producer price index (PPI). In short, the … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
FRED allows you to create complex data visualizations to help explain economic data. The FRED graph above shows one example, a “stacked area” graph, to show the evolution of the Federal Reserve’s total liabilities and its main components. The graph … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
FRED recently added 20 data series about work-from-home practices in the United States reported by Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, and Steven J. Davis. The data are organized by industry and worker characteristics and offer a broad range of insights. … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
The FRED Blog has discussed how economists use the consumer price index (CPI) to adjust the dollar value of retail sales, credit card debt, and state tax revenue to account for rising prices over time.| FRED Blog
The consumer price index (CPI) is composed of many prices with wildly different characteristics. One dimension in which they can differ is how frequently they change. Everybody is aware that gasoline prices can change daily. Other prices may not even change every year, such as administrative fees. To highlight the difference between these extremes, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta produces separate indices for goods that have flexible prices on the one hand and sticky prices on the other h...| FRED Blog
Life insurance provides a benefit, typically a one-time payout, at the time of death of the insured person. As such, it could be called death assurance. This FRED Blog post seeks to determine the scope of such insurance in the … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
On September 30, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released estimates of house price growth for the second quarter of 2025. Their index is estimated using actual sales prices as well as appraisal data, but the data are not seasonally … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
On September 26, 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released real GDP data for all US states for the second quarter of 2025. The FRED map above shows the percent change growth rates from the previous quarter: Red denotes contraction, … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
Net worth is the difference between total assets and liabilities. Tracking changes in the distribution of net worth can provide insight into how individual economic groups are faring, at least compared with each other. Our FRED graph above uses Board … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
Consumer price indices are supposed to cover everything that households buy. That includes “administratively set prices” for various fees and taxes. Postal services is one example.| FRED Blog
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In a previous FRED blog post, we discussed the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) released by the FOMC this past June. In this blog post, we will again use ALFRED to compare the latest projections released in September 2025 with several of the recent projections for the following variables:| fredblog.stlouisfed.org
In a previous FRED blog post, we discussed the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) released by the FOMC this past June. In this blog post, we will again use ALFRED to compare the latest projections released in September 2025 with … Continue reading →| FRED Blog
The labor force participation rate (LFPR)—the percentage of civilians employed or actively seeking work—has declined since the turn of the century as shown in our first FRED graph above. Previously, total LFPR had risen after an increase in women entering the workforce and a corresponding but smaller drop in men’s LFPR. Since 1990, women’s LFPR has stabilized but men’s LFPR has continued to decline at an average rate of 2.7 percentage points per decade.| FRED Blog
The FRED Blog has discussed the relationship between single-family housing starts and completions and also how changes in overall housing market prices are measured. Today we build on the topic of housing by comparing trends in the type of residential constructions erected.| FRED Blog
Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases data on total nonfarm employment in two forms: seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted.| fredblog.stlouisfed.org
The FRED Blog has discussed the dwindling supply of multifamily dwellings with 2 to 4 units. This trend even has its own name: the “missing middle.” Today, we tap into newly added data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to offer additional insights into this segment of the housing market.| FRED Blog
Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases data on total nonfarm employment in two forms: seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted.| fredblog.stlouisfed.org
The industrial production (IP) index is a popular metric of economic activity because it’s available relatively quickly. This monthly data series covers only a part of economic activity, however. In particular, it misses the service sector and the government sector. The graph above shows its evolution since 1972 along with a subcomponent that covers only manufacturing. Note that the index is set at 100 in 2012, meaning that all the indexes will always cross in 2012. A particularly healthy s...| FRED Blog
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FRED recently added two new personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data series from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis: one excluding the energy and housing categories from the all-items PCE price index and a second one excluding the food, energy, and housing categories. These series are timely additions to FRED’s substantial repository of measures of trend inflation.| fredblog.stlouisfed.org
Each quarter, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System releases the Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1 tables). They include data on transactions and levels of financial assets and liabilities, by sector and financial instrument; and full balance sheets, including net worth, for households and nonprofit organizations, nonfinancial corporate businesses, and nonfinancial noncorporate businesses.| FRED Blog
In a previous FRED blog post, we discussed the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) released by the FOMC this past March. In this blog post, we will again use ALFRED, the vintage data version of FRED, to compare the latest projections released in June 2025 with several of the recent projections through 2027 for the following variables:| FRED Blog
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It’s different from mining and construction.| FRED Blog
Your credit report is a record of your credit history that includes information about your identity, outstanding balances and history of making payments, publicly available information, and inquiries made by organizations or individuals about your credit history. Your credit score is a number that reflects the information in your credit report. See this Consumer’s Guide from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to learn more about it.| FRED Blog
Analysts can use several economic indicators to gauge a country’s health. One is the infant mortality rate, which is the number of deaths of infants under the age of one per 1000 live births. The FRED map above shows this rate across the world in 1970.| FRED Blog
Between 2019 and 2024, consumer prices in the US increased by 26% and the average weekly earnings of all private-sector employees rose by 28%. In other words, average earnings across the country grew 2% faster than nationwide inflation.| FRED Blog
Every quarter, FOMC meeting participants submit their projections of key economic indicators. The committee releases the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), containing the median, central tendency, and range of these projections:| FRED Blog
Employer-to-employer (EE) transitions are when workers move from one job to another without being unemployed in between. EE transitions are important for the aggregate economy for several reasons.| FRED Blog
Two of the largest financial assets for US households are pensions and direct holdings of stocks.| FRED Blog
The FRED Blog has discussed research on personal finance topics such as credit card debt, credit scores, and wealth accumulation. Our question today is: What has driven the changes in household debt since the 1990s?| FRED Blog
In past posts, we’ve looked at movement in household assets such as pensions and direct holdings of stocks and household liabilities such as home mortgages and consumer credit. Today, we look at how unexpected inflation can affect the value of these household assets and liabilities.| FRED Blog
The FRED Blog has discussed how the increased popularity of video streaming over the internet gradually decreased employment in video tape and disc rental establishments. Today we explore a related topic: how consuming news over the internet has reduced employment in the print media industry.| FRED Blog
In the most recent FOMC press conference, on June 12, Chair Powell noted that the labor market “has come into better balance, with continued strong job gains and a low unemployment rate.”| FRED Blog
Background| FRED Blog