The Data Bulletin

Economy

Jobs, prices, growth, housing, borrowing costs and consumers for the United States, straight from the agencies that measure them.

Jobs

Unemployment rate

Share of the labor force without a job and looking for one, seasonally adjusted.

Source: UNRATE, Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
The unemployment rate counts people without a job who looked for work in the past four weeks, as a share of everyone working or looking. It comes from the Current Population Survey of about 60,000 households.

Job openings

Positions employers were trying to fill on the last business day of the month, seasonally adjusted.

Source: JTSJOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
Job openings come from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which asks about 21,000 establishments how many positions were open and being actively recruited for.

Prices

Consumer prices

Change in the Consumer Price Index from the month before, seasonally adjusted. A bar above the line means prices rose that month.

Source: CPIAUCSL, Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
The CPI tracks the prices urban households pay for a fixed basket of goods and services. This chart shows the percent change from one month to the next; the yearly rate quoted in headlines compares against the same month a year earlier.

Growth

Real GDP

Everything the country produced, in 2017 dollars, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.

Source: GDPC1, Bureau of Economic Analysis via FRED. Quarterly.

About This Data
Real GDP removes price changes so that growth reflects more goods and services, not higher prices. The annual pace is the quarter's growth compounded over four quarters.

Housing

30-year mortgage rate

Average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage, from Freddie Mac's weekly survey of lenders.

Source: MORTGAGE30US, Freddie Mac via FRED. Weekly.

About This Data
Freddie Mac surveys lenders each week on the rates offered to borrowers with strong credit and a 20 percent down payment. Mortgage rates follow longer-term bond yields, so they move with, but not in lockstep with, the Federal Reserve.

Median sale price of houses

The middle sale price of houses sold in the quarter: half sold for more, half for less.

Source: MSPUS, Census Bureau and HUD via FRED. Quarterly.

About This Data
The median reflects both home values and which homes are selling in a given quarter. It is not seasonally adjusted.

Rates

Federal funds rate

The monthly average of the rate banks charge each other overnight, the Federal Reserve's main policy lever.

Source: FEDFUNDS, Federal Reserve via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
The Federal Open Market Committee sets a target range; this series is the effective rate that actually traded, averaged over the month.

Consumers

Retail sales

Change in retail and food-service sales from the month before, seasonally adjusted.

Source: RSAFS, Census Bureau via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
Retail sales measure what people spend at stores, restaurants and online. Consumer spending is about two thirds of the economy.

Consumer sentiment

The University of Michigan's index of how households feel about their finances and the economy.

Source: UMCSENT, University of Michigan via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
The Surveys of Consumers ask about 800 households each month about current conditions and expectations. The index is set to 100 in 1966.

Personal saving rate

The share of after-tax income that households save rather than spend.

Source: PSAVERT, Bureau of Economic Analysis via FRED. Monthly.

About This Data
Personal saving is what is left of disposable income after spending; the rate is that amount divided by disposable income.