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Consumer Expenditure Surveys

Building a Comprehensive Consumption Measure

The Bureau of Labor Statistics began an initiative to produce a new consumption measure in early 2021. An aim of this initiative is to produce a more comprehensive measure of economic well-being than is possible with expenditures alone. The measure will be based on the theoretical concept of consumption and will include the values of goods and services purchased within a certain time period and assumed to be consumed within the same period (e.g., food purchased at a restaurant, household utilities), the flow of services for owner-occupied housing and the stock of vehicles, in-kind benefits, and home-production. By including all of these, a more comprehensive measure is possible. The plan is to produce published tables and public use micro-level data. Data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys will serve as the base of the measure with values for home-production estimated using data from the American Time Use Survey.

More information about this initiative can be found on the following pages:

Last Modified Date: March 27, 2024