Federal Reserve Economic Data

As students head back to school, families will once again open their wallets to buy school supplies. As many families budget for the school season, so do federal, state, and local governments.

The FRED graph above shows the share of total current expenditures devoted to education by two types of governments: federal government (blue line) and state and local governments (orange line). Each share is multiplied by 100 to show it as a percentage. Hover over the graph to see annual values for each series.

During the past 60 years, the portion of the federal government’s budget allotted to education (plotted on the right axis) has averaged 2.35% and remained relatively constant. Meanwhile, the portion of state and local governments’ budgets allotted to education (plotted on the left axis) has averaged 34.7%, peaking at almost 40% in 1966-1967. Education spending weighs heavily on state and local budgets.

Let’s take another perspective. Since 1959, overall federal spending has been, on average, 50% larger than overall state and local government spending. However, during this period, for every dollar the federal government has spent on education, state and local governments have spent, on average, $8.27. Education budgets rely primarily on state and local finances.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Government current expenditures: Federal: Education.” Click “Edit Graph” and select the “Edit Line” tab to customize the data by searching for “Federal Government Current Expenditure.” Don’t forget to click “Add.” Next, type the formula (a/b)*100 and click “Apply.” Next, use the “Format” tab to customize the line position by selecting “Y-axis position: Right.” Next, select the “Add Line” tab. Search for and add “Government current expenditures: State and local: Education.” Next, customize the data by searching for and adding “State and Local Government: Current Expenditure.” Last, type the formula (a/b)*100 and click “Apply.”

Suggested by Amzie Maienbrook and Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

The FRED Blog has discussed the growing economic footprint of the US nonprofit sector. Today, we dig deeper into this topic by answering two related questions:

How is the economic footprint of the nonprofit sector measured? Our FRED graph above shows three key economic metrics:

• Gross output (dashed green line) is the inflation-adjusted dollar value of the services provided by nonprofit institutions serving households. That value is measured as their current operating expenses because those services are not generally sold in markets with observable prices. This is similar to measuring the output of the government sector.
• Receipts from sales of goods and services (dash-dot-dash orange line) is what households pay for goods and services provided by nonprofit institutions.
• Final consumption expenditures is the difference in value between gross output and receipts from sales. In other words, the value of services provided by nonprofits to households without an explicit charge.

What fraction of household consumption does nonprofit services represent?

The solid blue line shows the value of final consumption expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households as a percentage of total personal consumption. This measure allows us to easily compare the relative economic size of these expenditures over time.

Our FRED graph above shows that the nonprofit sector contributed an average of 2.94% to the total value of personal consumption of goods and services between 2007 and 2024. Earlier data show that this contribution rose from 0.52% in 1980 to 3.28% in 2012. Except for an outlier related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the nonprofit sector share of personal consumption slowly declined between 2012 and 2024, the latest data available at the time of this writing.

Learn more about measuring personal consumption expenditures from Chapter 5 of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) handbook from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Learn how nonprofit organizations, such as foundations, contribute to community and economic development by listening to this podcast from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on FRASER.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Real personal consumption expenditures: Services: Final consumption expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households.” Click on the “Edit Graph” button to customize the data by searching for “Real Personal Consumption Expenditures.” Don’t forget to click “Add.” Next, type the formula “(a/b)*100” and click “Apply.” To add the other two data series to the graph, select the “Add Line” tab and search for “Real personal consumption expenditures: Services: Gross output of nonprofit institutions.” Click on “Add data series.” Repeat the previous two steps to search for and add “Real personal consumption expenditures: Services: Receipts from sales of goods and services by nonprofit institutions.” Last, use the “Format” tab to customize Line 1 by selecting “Y-Axis position: Right.”

Suggested by Maria Benito Correa and Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

The FRED Blog has discussed many aspects of the college experience: income and wealth gains from graduating college, how to pay for a college education using a 529 saving plan, and how the type of college experience impacts future earnings. Today we trace the impact of college experience on unemployment.

The FRED graph above tracks the unemployment rates for two groups of young men: high school graduates with no college exposure and those with some time in college and/or an associate’s degree.

First, the unemployment rate for these workers with some college experience tends to be lower, suggesting there’s a stronger demand for workers with some college-level skills. This observation is supported by related research on the trends of declining employment in the manufacturing sector and increasing employment in the service sector, such as healthcare, which tends to favor workers with some college-level skills.

Second, the unemployment rate gap between young men with no college and young men with some college was most pronounced after the 2008 Great Recession. Research by Harrington and Khatiwada (2016) argues that employers favored older, more educated workers, which left high school graduates with far higher unemployment.

Third, that unemployment rate gap disappeared altogether during the first months of post-pandemic recovery and has remained at historically low levels since then. One explanation is that the post-pandemic recovery created labor shortages, forcing employers to become more willing to hire workers without college experience. Today, partial college education is no longer associated with lower unemployment.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for “Unemployment Rate – High School Graduates, No College, 20 to 24 years, Men.” Click on “Edit Graph” and use the “Add Line” tab to search for “Unemployment Rate, Some College or Associate degree, Men” and select the age 20-24 series.

Suggested by Oksana Leukhina and Gus Gerlach.