A national price index and a national unemployment rate are averages, and an average conceals the thing you wanted to know. Gordon takes both apart: consumer prices down to {{ "{:,}".format(f1.item_strata) }} item strata across {{ f1.areas }} areas ({{ "{:,}".format(f1.rows) }} observations, through {{ f1.last }}), and the labor market down to {{ f3.geographies }} geographies and {{ f3.measures }} measures ({{ "{:,}".format(f3.rows) }} observations, through {{ f3.last }}). Everything here is built from primary statistical releases, and every figure on this page is read from the file that produced it.
{# FRONTPAGE_PATTERN element 3 — ASK v2.0 Research Triad, server-rendered from this site's cdf block, directly under the hero and BEFORE any prose (STANDARDS_v2.0 §1). The jinja adapter, never the JS-hydrated partial: the hydrated one disappears silently when the manifest key does not resolve. data-cdf-size is GENERATED from BUNDLE_MANIFEST.csv TOTAL, never hand-typed (the FN-3 lesson). Read it from `cdf_data` (chrome.primary_data), NOT `cdf.data`: this site's cdf.data is a LIST (bundle + the /prices and /labor slices) and `cdf.data.size` on a list silently renders EMPTY — the exact regression caught by check_cdf check (e) on 2026-07-30. #}Consumer prices taken apart: {{ "{:,}".format(f1.item_strata) }} item strata across {{ f1.areas }} Bureau of Labor Statistics areas — the national city average, the census regions and divisions, and individual metropolitan areas. Pick an item, pick the places, download the rows.
{{ "{:,}".format(f1.rows) }} observations · {{ "{:,}".format(f1.series) }} series · {{ f1.first }}–{{ f1.last }} A separate, older vintage carries the same concept back to {{ f1.spine_first }} — shipped as its own file, never merged in.{{ f3.measures }} labor-market measures across {{ f3.geographies }} geographies — regions, divisions, every state, and large metropolitan areas. Unemployment, participation and the employment-to-population ratio side by side, so a falling unemployment rate can be read for what actually caused it.
{{ "{:,}".format(f3.rows) }} observations · {{ "{:,}".format(f3.series) }} series · {{ f3.first }}–{{ f3.last }} County and industry tiers ship too, and both are older ({{ f3.county_last }} and {{ f3.industry_last }}) — labelled, never blended.The same question asked about levels rather than rates of change: not how much a basket moved, but what it costs — and where. Dollar prices for {{ f2.price_item_count }} items by area, a metropolitan cost comparison across {{ f2.costmap_areas }} places, and daily wholesale quotes from {{ f2.wholesale_cities }} terminal markets.
{{ "{:,}".format(f2.rows_levels) }} dollar prices · {{ "{:,}".format(f2.rows_costmap) }} metropolitan comparisons · {{ "{:,}".format(f2.rows_wholesale) }} daily wholesale rows {# Three panels, three clocks. The card states all three rather than picking the flattering one — the dollar prices are the STALEST thing on this site and saying so here is the whole point of a per-product freshness label. #} Three sources on three clocks, never merged: dollar prices through {{ f2.levels_last }}, the cost map through {{ f2.costmap_last }}, wholesale through {{ f2.wholesale_last }}.The headline index broken into its major components, with a drill-down into sub-components. National detail plus the four census regions.
7 components · national + 4 census regionsThe {{ n_charts }} curated chart-series — inflation, the labor market, the labeled heterodox lens and structural change — plus {{ n_studies }} chart-backed studies carrying the interpretation.
{{ n_charts }} charts · {{ n_studies }} studies · CSV / XLSX / Parquet on every oneTwo layers ship together and are labeled as two. The first is a neutral, fully-sourced data layer: official price and employment statistics, decomposed to the finest grain the published data supports, with the underlying rows downloadable from every chart. The second is a labeled heterodox reading of those numbers — distributive conflict and turbulent competition rather than a stable trade-off between inflation and unemployment — carried in the Studies and marked as interpretation wherever it appears.
Start with The Item Ledger if you want to know which items produced an inflation print and where; with The Local Labor Market if you want to know which places produced a national employment number; with the Explorer if you would rather browse the curated charts. The Methodology states every source, unit and limit, including the ones that are inconvenient.
Built from primary statistical releases — the Bureau of Labor Statistics price and labor-force programmes, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Federal Reserve research measures. Freshness on this page is the last real observation in each product, not the date the site was built. Where two vintages of the same concept are held, both ship and each is labeled; they are never silently merged. Nothing here is fabricated, and where a figure is not held the page says so rather than estimating it. Full provenance: Methodology · Data & downloads.