The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has introduced a new data page called Regional Indicators for Labor Markets and Prices. The page provides detailed information on labor market indicators and price growth across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with particular attention to the Federal Reserve’s 12th District, which covers nine western states.
According to the authors, Leila Bengali and Evgeniya Duzhak, “To see how conditions related to the dual mandate vary across the nation, the SF Fed provides regional labor market indicators and measures of price and earnings growth in its new data page, Regional Indicators for Labor Markets and Prices. The page includes data for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a focus on the 12th District, the largest of the Federal Reserve Districts, covering nine western states and 37% of U.S. geographic area.”
The release highlights that economic conditions differ widely throughout the United States. Data on employment growth rates and unemployment rates are sourced from Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys. The vacancy-to-unemployment (V–U) ratio is used as an indicator to measure labor market tightness in each state.
“As of November 2024, the national V–U ratio was close to 1, indicating a relatively balanced labor market. However, V–U ratios vary widely across the United States, from a very tight labor market reading of 2.6 in South Dakota to a relatively slack measure of 0.7 in California,” Bengali and Duzhak wrote.
In addition to labor metrics, regional variations in inflation are also reported using consumer price index (CPI) data for select metropolitan areas—eight within the 12th District. Headline metro area CPI inflation is broken down into contributions from shelter, food, energy, and other goods or services.
“Both inflation rates and their composition differ across metro areas. For example, even though overall inflation rates in San Francisco and urban Alaska were similar, shelter inflation contributed less in Alaska than in San Francisco,” they noted.
Earnings growth is another key metric available on this new platform. Comparing inflation rates for metro areas with state-level earnings growth offers insight into whether wage increases are keeping pace with rising prices.
“For example, across the California metro areas, inflation ranged from 1.1% to 3.4% in November and December, and earnings growth in the state overall was 3.9% in December. This indicates that, on average, earnings have been keeping up with price increases recently,” according to Bengali and Duzhak.
The Regional Indicators page will be updated monthly with new figures covering both labor markets and price trends for all regions included.
