Category: Money & Prices

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Employment Situation for December 2022. The report shows that the labor market remains strong, despite the federal reserve rapidly raising interest rates to combat inflation during the second half of 2022. The report showed that the economy gained 223,000 new jobs in December, and the unemployment […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released The Employment Situation for November 2022 today. The report contains information from two surveys about the state of the labor market. The household survey reports data from households about individual employment outcomes. This survey found that the unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 3.7 percent. The report also […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Employment Situation for October 2022. The report provides evidence that while the labor market remains strong, it is growing at a less rapid pace. Specifically, the report finds that the economy added 261,000 new jobs in October, and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.7 percent.  While job […]

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its report on Personal Income and Outlays for July 2022 today. The report gives an updated view of income and inflation in the economy. The report details how personal income, expenditures, and prices evolve each month. On the income side, the BEA found that real disposable personal income […]

With CPI inflation remaining above 8% over the past year and average gas prices rising above $5.00 per gallon, policymakers are trying to identify the source of the rapid increase in the price level in order to determine how rapidly to raise interest rates to combat inflation. There are two views to describe the inflation […]

Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index for May 2022. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks inflation by measuring the average change over time in prices that urban consumers pay for a market basket of consumer goods and services. The headline number showed that the all items index increased 8.6 percent […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly report on the Employment Situation for May today. The report shows that the labor market is now in a steady pattern of slow growth, with little change from previous months. The headline numbers of the report show that the economy added 390,000 new jobs, slightly higher […]

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the consumer price index (CPI) for March 2022. The CPI is a measure of inflation that  tracks changes in prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services. As seen in figure 1, inflation for urban consumers rose to an annualized rate of 8.5 […]

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the employment situation for March 2022. In March, the labor market continued to grow rapidly, adding 431,000 new jobs. In addition, revisions to the previous two months’ reports increased estimated job gains by 95,000 additional jobs. Together, the economy added 562,000 jobs per month over the last […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly report on the employment situation in February today. The report highlighted a substantial increase in payroll employment of 678,000 new jobs and a reduction of the unemployment rate to 3.8 percent. These numbers highlight a continued strengthening of the labor market in February. This followed strong […]