Research Guide
Where to find economic data: the free official sources
Inflation, jobs, spending, rates and energy all come from a handful of agencies. Go to them directly instead of a screenshot of a chart.
Most economic headlines are someone's summary of a government release. The release itself is usually free, published on a schedule, and far more detailed than the headline. Learning where the original data lives lets you check the story, see the parts the headline left out and build your own view of the economy.
The main sources
| Source | What it publishes |
|---|---|
| FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) | A free database that collects series from many agencies in one place, with charts and downloads |
| BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) | Consumer prices (CPI), jobs and unemployment, wages, producer prices |
| BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) | GDP, personal income and spending, the PCE price index |
| Census Bureau | Retail sales, housing starts and permits, business inventories |
| EIA (Energy Information Administration) | Oil, fuel, natural gas and electricity data, including weekly petroleum stocks |
| CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) | The Commitments of Traders report on futures positioning |
Start with these FRED series
FRED gives each series a short identifier. Typing it into the FRED search box takes you straight to the data, its notes and the original source. A practical starter set:
| Series ID | What it is |
|---|---|
| CPIAUCSL | Consumer price index for all urban consumers, all items, seasonally adjusted |
| CPILFESL | Core CPI, excluding food and energy |
| PCEPI | PCE price index from the BEA |
| PAYEMS | Total nonfarm payroll employment |
| UNRATE | Unemployment rate |
| ICSA | Initial claims for unemployment insurance, weekly |
| RSAFS | Advance retail and food services sales |
| INDPRO | Industrial production index |
| DGS2 and DGS10 | Two-year and ten-year Treasury yields, daily |
| T10Y2Y | Ten-year minus two-year Treasury yield spread |
Read the notes before you use the number
Every series has details that change what you can say about it. Check the units (an index, a percentage, thousands of people, millions of dollars), the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly), and whether it is seasonally adjusted. Note the date of the observation and the date it was released: a monthly figure published this week describes last month, and a quarterly survey retrieved today is not today's news.
Download raw values, not chart images
Download the observations into a spreadsheet and calculate changes yourself. For a price index such as CPI, the useful figures are the monthly change and the change from the same month a year earlier. For employment, look at the monthly change in payrolls and a three-month average, which smooths noise. For yields, measure changes in basis points over a defined period. Our guide on how to analyze economic trends shows how to turn these into a simple growth and inflation dashboard.
Build a simple release calendar
Each agency publishes its main releases on a schedule announced in advance on its website. Keep a one-page calendar of the releases that matter to your question: the CPI and jobs reports from the BLS, GDP and personal income from the BEA, retail sales from the Census Bureau, weekly jobless claims and the EIA's weekly petroleum figures. Before each release, write down the previous value and what you will compare the new one with. After the release, record the new figure, any revision to the prior month and the date. Over a few months this simple log becomes one of the most useful research tools you own, because it shows how the data actually moved rather than how it was described at the time.
It also keeps you honest about timing. A release can confirm or contradict a view only once it is out, and a calendar makes those test dates explicit.
Go to the agency for detail
FRED is the fastest way in, but the agency release has the detail. The BLS CPI release breaks prices down into food, energy, shelter, goods and services. The BEA release splits GDP into consumer spending, investment, government and trade. The EIA weekly petroleum report separates crude oil from gasoline and distillate fuel. When a headline says "inflation rose", the agency tables tell you which prices did the rising.
Positioning and markets data
For futures markets, the CFTC's Commitments of Traders report shows how different groups of traders are positioned. It is a weekly snapshot with a delay, and it describes positions rather than reasons. Our COT report explainer covers how to read it carefully.
Knowing the sources is step one. Keeping them organized, calculated consistently and tied to a question is the rest of the job. Our ebook How to Research Like a Wall Street Analyst lists the exact series, the calculations for each and a source sheet you can reuse.
Questions readers ask
Is FRED data the same as the government agency data?
FRED republishes series from their original producers, such as the BLS and BEA, and links to the source. For detailed breakdowns and methodology, go to the agency's own release.
What does seasonally adjusted mean?
It means the data has been adjusted to remove regular calendar patterns, such as holiday hiring, so month-to-month changes are easier to compare.
Why do economic numbers change after they are published?
Agencies revise many figures as more complete information arrives. That is normal, and it is why you should record which release and date you used.
Educational material from The Company Chronicle, not individualized investment advice. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Examples are illustrative.