Federal Reserve Economic Data

The FRED Blog has discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the participation of different groups of workers in the US labor force. Many workers in the later stages of their careers left the labor force, taking early retirement. This phenomenon was so pronounced it became known as “excess retirements.” Today we tap into recent research from the St. Louis Fed to discuss this wave of early retirements.

Our FRED graph above shows the COVID-19-induced recession (shaded area in the center of the graph) and labor force participation data for two population groups between June 2015 and June 2025:

• People aged 25 to 54 (solid blue line, plotted on the left axis).
• People aged 55 and over (dashed green line, plotted on the right axis).

Both younger and older workers withdrew from the labor force in large numbers during the pandemic: In fact, their participation rates plummeted. Yet, within two years, the younger workers had bounced back to their pre-pandemic participation rates. But the older workers have not.

Recent research by Serdar Birinci, Miguel Faria e Castro, and Kurt See finds that workforce retirements substantially exceeded pre-pandemic trends between 2020 and 2024. Their analysis of broader demographic trends also shows an overall rising share of retirements from the labor force. This trend, by itself, will continue to depress the labor force participation rate of workers aged 55 and older for the foreseeable future.

For more about this and other research, visit the publications page of the St. Louis Fed’s website, which offers an array of economic analysis and expertise provided by our staff.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Labor Force Participation Rate – 25-54 Yrs.” Click “Edit Graph” and use the “Add Line” tab to search for and add “Labor Force Participation Rate – 55 Yrs. & Over.” Use the “Format” tab to customize Line 2 by selecting “Y-Axis position: Right.”

Suggested by Daniel Bell and Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

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.