Connect here to US data (shown graphically) on:

• GDP and Productivity
• Labor
• Housing
• Distribution of Income

The data used on these pages for the US came from the following sources.  Much of the data is also available from the excellent and convenient set called FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, part of the US Federal Reserve System.  The ultimate sources are:

• GDP Growth and its Components:  quarterly, seasonally adjusted at annual rates, issued each quarter (but with an initial estimate, and then a second and third revision as more complete data becomes available), by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce.
• National Income Components:  quarterly, seasonally adjusted at annual rates, issued each quarter by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce, but only complete with profits estimated at the time of the second revision of the quarterly GDP accounts.  Table 1.12 was used in the Interactive NIPA tables.
• Weekly Initial Claims on Unemployment:  seasonally adjusted, issued weekly by the Employment and Training Administration, US Department of Labor, and shows the weekly total of new claims for unemployment insurance.
• New Home Sales:  monthly, seasonally adjusted at an annual rate.  US Census Bureau.
• Monthly Change in Employment, and Unemployment Rate:  seasonally adjusted, issued monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor.  Note that the Employment figures come from a survey of Establishments (firms mainly), while the unemployment figures come from a separate survey of Households.
• Home Prices:  seasonally adjusted, S&P / Case-Shiller index for 10 major metropolitan areas of the US.  The 10-city index was used rather than the 20-city index, as the 20-city index starts only in 2000.  Issued monthly, where each figure is a three month moving average, with the date shown for the final month (i.e. the “September” figure is an average of raw data for July, August, and September).
• Labor Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, and Unit Profits:  seasonally adjusted, calculated by and issued quarterly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor.  Makes use of output data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce, as well as data from the Bureau of the Census and the US Federal Reserve Board.
• Job Openings, Total Hires, and Total Separations (Layoffs, Quits, and Other):  seasonally adjusted, JOLTS survey of private (including non-profit) establishments and government entities, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor.

European data:  Most European data used in these blog postings have come from Eurostat, an agency of the European Commission.  The Eurostat data covers all members of the European Union and often a number more (such as comparable data from the US or Japan), and has the advantage over national sources that it reports data on a comparable basis across countries (to the extent this is possible).  Europe wide country data is also available from the European Central Bank Statistical Data Warehouse, but I have found this data set to be generally more difficult to use.