The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (SF Fed) has launched a new data page, Regional Indicators for Labor Markets and Prices, which presents indicators related to labor markets and earnings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The page also features inflation data for selected metropolitan areas within the Federal Reserve’s 12th District.
According to the SF Fed, “To show how conditions related to the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment vary across the nation, the SF Fed launched a new data page—Regional Indicators for Labor Markets and Prices. The page presents a range of indicators related to labor markets and earnings for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as inflation data for selected metropolitan areas within the Federal Reserve’s 12th District.”
The Federal Reserve’s dual mandate is to promote price stability and maximum employment on a national level. However, economic conditions can differ widely across regions in such a large country. Each of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks helps inform monetary policy decisions by monitoring local economic trends.
“Data—particularly on labor markets and prices—help guide monetary policy decisions. The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate to promote the goals of price stability and maximum employment. While these goals refer to national prices and employment, the U.S. economy is big and varies widely, making it important for the Federal Reserve to understand differences across regional economies. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve System includes 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. Each of the Reserve Banks plays a significant role in setting monetary policy, and those policy decisions are informed in part by regional economic conditions,” according to an SF Fed statement.
The new data page provides users with tools to examine state-level measures such as employment growth rates from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) establishment surveys and unemployment rates from BLS household surveys. It also offers insights into labor market tightness through vacancy-to-unemployment (V–U) ratios.
Labor market tightness is determined by comparing job vacancies with unemployed workers: “Another way to learn more about labor market conditions is to assess the tightness of the labor market by comparing the number of vacant positions employers would like to fill (vacancies) to the number of people looking for jobs (unemployed). The resulting vacancy-to-unemployment (V–U) ratio measures the degree of labor market tightness.”
As reported by SF Fed economists using November 2024 figures, there was significant variation in V–U ratios across states: South Dakota had a very tight labor market with a ratio of 2.6 while California’s measure was relatively slack at 0.7.
Inflation data on this resource uses consumer price index (CPI) figures due its availability at metro area levels; eight out of twenty-three covered metro areas are located within https://www.frbsf.org/about/sf-fed-blog/regional-data-page-shows-how-economy-varies-across-the-u-s/;the large western-focused https://www.frbsf.org/about/sf-fed-blog/regional-data-page-shows-how-economy-varies-across-the-u-s/;12th District served by San Francisco’s branch.
“Adapting the methodology on the SF Fed’s CPI Inflation Contributions from Goods and Services data page, we can break down headline metro area CPI inflation into contributions from shelter, food, energy, and other categories,” according to authors Leila Bengali and Evgeniya Duzhak.
The site also enables comparisons between state-level earnings growth rates versus local inflation rates—a key factor in evaluating changes in residents’ purchasing power over time.
“For example, across California metro areas,” Bengali explained via blog post text published Feb 19 2025,”inflation ranged from 1.1% to 3.4% in November and December,and earnings growth in California overall was 3.9% in December.This indicates that,on average,earnings have been keeping up with price increases recently.”
More maps,data visualizations,and downloadable resources are available on https://www.frbsf.org/about/sf-fed-blog/regional-data-page-shows-how-economy-varies-across-the-u-s/;the SF Fed’s Regional Indicators page , which will be updated monthly.
