Federal Reserve Economic Data

The FRED Blog has discussed the impact that shortages in childcare services had on women’s employment during and immediately after the COVID-19 induced recession. Today we discuss the potential role that either remote or hybrid work might play in boosting the participation of women in the labor force.

The FRED graph above shows the labor force participation rate of three groups of women: White women (the solid blue line); Black or African American women (the solid red line); and Hispanic or Latino women (the solid green line). The data are reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and currently do not include information on any other racial or ethnic groups. We limited the date range of the data between Q1 2014 and Q1 2024 and added custom (dotted) lines anchored at the pre-recession peak of Q4 2019 to make the analysis easier.

The bounce-back in the labor force participation rates of women was gradual and, in the case of Black or African American women and Hispanic or Latino women, it exceeded its 2019 peak value. Recent research by Maria Tito at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System may provide a potential explanation.

Her analysis suggests that women between the ages of 25 and 54 have been capitalizing on the ability to work remotely some or all of the time. Their flows in and out of the labor force and from unemployed to employed status changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the recent rise in the overall labor force participation rate of women mostly reflects gains in occupations that cannot be performed remotely. Thus, even though labor markets are likely to be permanently influenced by remote and hybrid work options, more research into the impact of those options is needed.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Labor Force Participation Rate – 20 Yrs. & over, White Women” Click on the orange button “Edit Graph.” Select the tab “Add Line” and search for “Labor Force Participation Rate – 20 Yrs. & over, Black or African American Women.” Click on “Add data series” and repeat the previous step to add “Labor Force Participation Rate – 20 Yrs. & over, Hispanic or Latino Women” to the graph. Next, use the “Create user-define line” option to add the horizontal lines. Last, use “Format” tab to customize the line styles.

Suggested by Christina Charie and Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

When it comes to data delivery, FRED wholeheartedly embraces the motto of the Olympics: “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together!”

Although the FRED Blog team won’t be able to travel to Paris, France, to attend the 33rd Summer Olympic Games, we can talk about the Olympians and Parisiens right here at home.

And, of course, we’re talking about the residents of Olympia, Washington, and Paris (in both Texas and Tennessee).

The FRED map above shows the median number of days a real estate listing spent on the market from the time it was listed for sale until the sale was reported as pending or closed or the property was no longer for sale.*

First, hover over Olympia-Tumwater, Washington, in the map. You can see that, as of June 2024, the median time it took for a real estate property there to exchange hands was 30 days: That is, half did so in 30 or fewer days and the other half did so in 30 or more days. By contrast, the median time a real estate property stayed on the market in Paris, Texas, was 58 days. In Paris, Tennessee, it was 60 days. So, in the parlance of the Games, we have our gold, silver, and bronze medals—at least for this race.

How this map was created: Search FRED for “Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market Year-Over-Year in Olympia-Tumwater, WA (CBSA)” and click the “View Map” option.

*The data are reported by Realtor.com. You can learn more about data geographies in FRED here.

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

This is the FRED Blog’s 1000th post! So, today’s topic is brought to you by the letter M, which stands for 1000 in Roman numerals. M also stands for money and is used to label various technical measures of money in the economy.

First, a definition: Money is a good that’s generally accepted as 1) a store of value, 2) a means of exchange, and 3) a unit of account. Various goods have been considered money throughout history, most prominently precious metals. In this era of fiat money, money is harder to define and measure. Read more on what makes money, money.

Definitions differ from country to country, due to variations in their financial systems. So, today we concentrate on the United States, where the convention is to number the money definitions from the narrowest to the broadest, from M0 to M3:

• M0 is cash, a.k.a. currency in circulation in the form of bills and coins. (It’s labeled “Currency Component of M1” in the graph.) Currency in Federal Reserve and bank vaults doesn’t count.
• M1 adds to M0 all highly liquid bank accounts, such as checking accounts. Since 2020, M1 has also included savings accounts, which caused a jump in M1.
• M2 adds to M1 less-liquid small “time deposits” such as CDs and money market accounts for individuals.
• M3 adds to M2 large and institutional time deposits. The Federal Reserve discontinued collecting the necessary data for M3 in 2006, when the cost outweighed the policy relevance.

All these concepts, and there are more, can be thought of as money. Yet, their statistics vary widely, as does their policy relevance. Check back with the FRED Blog whenever you need data and definitions.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for “currency” and take the component of M1 series, to be consistent with the units of the rest of the graph. Click on “Edit Graph, open the “Add Line” tab, and search for “M1,” “M2,” and “M3.” Adjust the sample period to start on 1959-01-01.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.