Author name: Rebel Recon

The employment-population ratio is the number of employed people divided by the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older.

The monthly payroll survey counts nonfarm payroll jobs, not unique people. A person working multiple jobs at different establishments is counted once at each establishment. By contrast, the household survey counts an employed person only on

BLS publishes two different monthly employment measures. The payroll survey estimates nonfarm payroll jobs; the household survey estimates employed people. They use different samples, definitions, and coverage, so they can move differently

BLS says an over-the-month change of roughly 122,000 nonfarm payroll jobs is needed to be statistically significant at the 90% confidence level in the payroll survey, while the comparable threshold for household-survey employment is roughly

The Current Employment Statistics payroll survey excludes several categories that the household survey can count as employed, including unincorporated self-employed workers, most agricultural workers, unpaid family workers, and private-hous

The headline Consumer Price Index includes food and energy. BLS also publishes a separate “all items less food and energy” index, commonly called core CPI, because those categories can be volatile.

The CPI does not price owner-occupied houses themselves as consumer goods. BLS treats the house as a capital or investment good and measures the shelter service homeowners receive through owners’ equivalent rent, based on rental-market info

Under the CPI framework for owner-occupied housing, home purchase prices and capital costs are not directly included as consumer-price items. BLS says mortgage interest, property taxes, real-estate fees, most maintenance, and improvement co

The official U.S. poverty thresholds do not vary by geography. The same official threshold structure is used nationwide and is adjusted for inflation, family size, and composition rather than local housing or living costs.