Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until
 8:30 a.m. (EST) Tuesday, December 17, 2013 USDL-13-2390
 
 Technical information: (202) 691-7000 Reed.Steve@bls.gov www.bls.gov/cpi
 Media Contact:         (202) 691-5902 PressOffice@bls.gov
 
                 Consumer Price Index - November 2013

 The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was
 unchanged in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau
 of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all
 items index increased 1.2 percent before seasonal adjustment.
 
 The energy index declined in November, offsetting increases in other
 indexes to result in the seasonally adjusted all items index being
 unchanged. The indexes for gasoline and for natural gas fell
 significantly, more than offsetting increases in the electricity and
 fuel oil indexes. The food index rose slightly in November, with the
 food at home index unchanged.
 
 The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in
 November. Increases in the indexes for shelter and airline fares
 accounted for most of the increase, with the indexes for recreation
 and for used cars and trucks also rising. The indexes for apparel,
 for household furnishings and operations, and for new vehicles all
 declined in November.
 
 The all items index increased 1.2 percent over the last 12 months, a
 larger increase than the 1.0 percent rise for the 12 months ending
 October. The 12-month increase in the index for all items less food
 and energy remained at 1.7 percent for the third month in a row. The
 food index increased 1.2 percent over the last 12 months, while the
 energy index declined 2.4 percent.

 Table A. Percent changes in CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city
 average
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                  Seasonally adjusted changes from             
                                          preceding month                      
                                                                          Un-  
                                                                       adjusted
                                                                        12-mos.
                              May   June  July  Aug.  Sep.  Oct.  Nov.   ended 
                              2013  2013  2013  2013  2013  2013  2013   Nov.  
                                                                         2013  
                                                                               
                                                                               
 All items..................    .1    .5    .2    .1    .2   -.1    .0      1.2
  Food......................   -.1    .2    .1    .1    .0    .1    .1      1.2
   Food at home.............   -.3    .2    .1    .1    .0    .1    .0       .6
   Food away from home (1)..    .2    .2    .2    .2    .1    .1    .3      2.1
  Energy....................    .4   3.4    .2   -.3    .8  -1.7  -1.0     -2.4
   Energy commodities.......   -.1   5.7   1.0    .0    .9  -2.7  -1.5     -5.5
    Gasoline (all types)....    .0   6.3   1.0   -.1    .8  -2.9  -1.6     -5.8
    Fuel oil (1)............  -2.9   -.5   1.1   1.2    .9   -.6    .4     -4.1
   Energy services..........   1.2    .1  -1.0   -.7    .8   -.2   -.2      2.5
    Electricity.............    .8    .2   -.3   -.1    .5    .1    .3      2.9
    Utility (piped) gas                                                        
       service..............   2.4   -.4  -2.8  -2.3   1.8  -1.0  -1.8      1.0
  All items less food and                                                      
     energy.................    .2    .2    .2    .1    .1    .1    .2      1.7
   Commodities less food and                                                   
      energy commodities....    .0    .2    .0    .0   -.1   -.1   -.1      -.2
    New vehicles............    .0    .3    .1    .0    .2   -.1   -.1       .6
    Used cars and trucks....   -.1   -.4   -.4   -.1    .0    .3    .1      2.0
    Apparel.................    .2    .9    .6    .1   -.5   -.5   -.4      -.1
    Medical care commodities   -.5    .5    .4    .4    .1    .3    .0       .8
   Services less energy                                                        
      services..............    .2    .2    .2    .2    .2    .2    .3      2.4
    Shelter.................    .3    .2    .2    .2    .2    .1    .3      2.4
    Transportation services     .4   -.1    .4   -.5    .3    .7    .3      2.6
    Medical care services...    .0    .4    .1    .7    .3   -.1    .0      2.6

   1 Not seasonally adjusted.


 Consumer Price Index Data for November 2013
 
 Food
 
 The food index rose 0.1 percent in November, the same increase as in
 October. The index for food at home was unchanged, with major grocery
 store food groups mixed. The index for fruits and vegetables declined
 in November, falling 0.7 percent after rising in October. The indexes
 for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs and for nonalcoholic beverages
 also declined in November, each falling 0.2 percent. The index for
 cereals and bakery products, which declined in October, was unchanged
 in November. The index for other food at home rose in November,
 increasing 0.5 percent, and the index for dairy and related products
 rose 0.4 percent in November after falling in October. The food at
 home index has risen 0.6 percent over the last 12 months, the
 smallest 12-month increase since June 2010. The index for meats,
 poultry, fish, and eggs has posted the largest increase of the six
 major grocery store food groups over the last year, rising 2.8
 percent. The index for nonalcoholic beverages has declined the most,
 falling 1.8 percent. The index for food away from home rose 0.3
 percent in November, its largest increase since April, and has risen
 2.1 percent over the last year.
 
 
 Energy
 
 The energy index declined 1.0 percent in November after falling 1.7
 percent in October. The gasoline index, which fell 2.9 percent in
 October, declined 1.6 percent in November. (Before seasonal
 adjustment, gasoline prices fell 3.3 percent in November.) The index
 for natural gas also declined, falling 1.8 percent in November; this
 was its fifth decline in the last 6 months. Other energy indexes
 increased, however. The electricity index rose 0.3 percent in
 November, its third consecutive increase. The index for fuel oil rose
 0.4 percent in November after declining in October. The energy index
 has declined 2.4 percent over the last year, with the gasoline index
 down 5.8 percent and the index for fuel oil decreasing 4.1 percent.
 The electricity index has risen 2.9 percent over the last year, and
 the index for natural gas has increased 1.0 percent.
 
 
 All items less food and energy
 
 The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in
 November after rising 0.1 percent in each of the 3 previous months.
 The shelter index rose 0.3 percent in November after a 0.1 percent
 increase in October. The rent index increased 0.2 percent, while the
 index for owners' equivalent rent increased 0.3 percent. The index
 for lodging away from home rose 2.9 percent in November after
 declining 3.1 percent in October. The index for airline fares
 continued to rise, advancing 2.6 percent in November after a 3.6
 percent increase in October. The recreation index rose 0.2 percent,
 and the index for used cars and trucks advanced 0.1 percent. The
 index for medical care was unchanged in November, with both the
 medical care commodities and medical care services components
 unchanged. The apparel index continued to decrease, falling 0.4
 percent, its third consecutive decline. The index for household
 furnishings and operations fell 0.2 percent in November, as did the
 tobacco index. The index for new vehicles declined 0.1 percent for
 the second consecutive month.
 
 The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.7 percent
 for the 12 months ending November. Indexes that have increased at a
 faster rate include airline fares (4.2 percent), shelter (2.4
 percent), and medical care (2.2 percent). Indexes that increased more
 slowly or declined include household furnishings and operations (-1.4
 percent), apparel (-0.1 percent), and new vehicles (0.6 percent).
 Not seasonally adjusted CPI measures
 
 The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased
 1.2 percent over the last 12 months to an index level of 233.069
 (1982-84=100). For the month, the index decreased 0.2 percent prior
 to seasonal adjustment.
 
 The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers
 (CPI-W) increased 1.1 percent over the last 12 months to an index
 level of 229.133  (1982-84=100). For the month, the index decreased
 0.3 percent prior to seasonal adjustment.
 
 The Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U)
 increased 1.1 percent over the last 12 months. For the month, the
 index decreased 0.2 percent on a not seasonally adjusted basis.
 Please note that the indexes for the post-2011 period are subject to
 revision.
 
 
 The Consumer Price Index for December 2013 is scheduled to be
 released on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Calendar year 2014 release dates for Consumer Price Index news releases
 are now available at http://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/cpi.htm
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



 Discontinuation of Department Store Inventory Indexes

 The Bureau of Labor Statistics will discontinue publication of its
 Department Store Inventory indexes after the release of the December
 2013 CPI in mid-January 2014, and these values will no longer be
 uploaded to the Labstat database. For further information please
 contact Sharon Gibson at 202-691-6968 or gibson.sharon@bls.gov.

 Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) Annual
 Average Indexes Discontinued

 The final revisions of the C-CPI-U indexes for 2012 will be available
 in February 2014.  Annual average indexes for C-CPI-U series will not
 be published for time periods after 2012. (Monthly C-CPI-U indexes
 will continue to be published.)   In February 2014, the annual average
 indexes for the final estimates for 2012 C-CPI-U series will be
 published in the public CPI database.  Table 1CA will not be
 published.

 Facilities for Sensory Impaired

 Information from this release will be made available to sensory
 impaired individuals upon request.  Voice phone:  202-691-5200,
 Federal Relay Services:  1-800-877-8339.

 Brief Explanation of the CPI
     
 The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in
 prices over time of goods and services purchased by households.  The
 Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups:
 (1) the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which
 covers households of wage earners and clerical workers that comprise
 approximately 29 percent of the total population and (2) the CPI for
 All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the Chained CPI for All Urban
 Consumers (C-CPI-U), which cover approximately 88 percent of the total
 population and include in addition to wage earners and clerical worker
 households, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical
 workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and
 retirees and others not in the labor force.
     
 The CPIs are based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels,
 transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services,
 drugs, and other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day
 living.  Prices are collected each month in 87 urban areas across the
 country from about 4,000 housing units and approximately 26,000 retail
 establishments-department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling
 stations, and other types of stores and service establishments.  All
 taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are
 included in the index.  Prices of fuels and a few other items are
 obtained every month in all 87 locations.  Prices of most other
 commodities and services are collected every month in the three
 largest geographic areas and every other month in other areas.  Prices
 of most goods and services are obtained by personal visits or
 telephone calls of the Bureau's trained representatives.
     
 In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each
 location are averaged together with weights, which represent their
 importance in the spending of the appropriate population group.  Local
 data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average.  For the CPI-U
 and CPI-W separate indexes are also published by size of city, by
 region of the country, for cross-classifications of regions and
 population-size classes, and for 27 local areas.  Area indexes do not
 measure differences in the level of prices among cities; they only
 measure the average change in prices for each area since the base
 period.  For the C-CPI-U data are issued only at the national level.
 It is important to note that the CPI-U and CPI-W are considered final
 when released, but the C-CPI-U is issued in preliminary form and
 subject to two annual revisions.
     
 The index measures price change from a designed reference date.  For
 the CPI-U and the CPI-W the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100.  The
 reference base for the C-CPI-U is December 1999 equals 100.  An
 increase of 16.5 percent from the reference base, for example, is
 shown as 116.500.  This change can also be expressed in dollars as
 follows:  the price of a base period market basket of goods and
 services in the CPI has risen from $10 in 1982-84 to $11.65.
     
 For further details visit the CPI home page on the Internet at
 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ or contact our CPI Information and Analysis
 Section on (202) 691-7000.


 Note on Sampling Error in the Consumer Price Index

 The CPI is a statistical estimate that is subject to sampling error
 because it is based upon a sample of retail prices and not the
 complete universe of all prices. BLS calculates and publishes
 estimates of the 1-month, 2-month, 6-month and 12-month percent change
 standard errors annually, for the CPI-U.  These standard error
 estimates can be used to construct confidence intervals for hypothesis
 testing. For example, the estimated standard error of the 1 month
 percent change is 0.04 percent for the U.S. All Items Consumer Price
 Index.  This means that if we repeatedly sample from the universe of
 all retail prices using the same methodology, and estimate a
 percentage change for each sample, then 95% of these estimates would
 be within 0.08 percent of the 1 month percentage change based on all
 retail prices.  For example, for a 1-month change of 0.2 percent in
 the All Items CPI for All Urban Consumers, we are 95 percent confident
 that the actual percent change based on all retail prices would fall
 between 0.12 and 0.28 percent. For the latest data, including
 information on how to use the estimates of standard error, see
 "Variance Estimates for Price Changes in the Consumer Price Index,
 January-December 2012".  These data are available on the CPI home page
 (http://www.bls.gov/cpi), or by using the following link:
 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpivar2012.pdf


 Calculating Index Changes

 Movements of the indexes from one month to another are usually
 expressed as percent changes rather than changes in index points,
 because index point changes are affected by the level of the index in
 relation to its base period while percent changes are not.  The
 example below illustrates the computation of index point and percent
 changes.
     
 Percent changes for 3-month and 6-month periods are expressed as
 annual rates and are computed according to the standard formula for
 compound growth rates.  These data indicate what the percent change
 would be if the current rate were maintained for a 12-month period.

 Index Point Change

 CPI
 202.416
 Less previous index
 201.800
 Equals index point change
 .616



 Percent Change

 Index point difference
 .616
 Divided by the previous index
 201.800
 Equals
 0.003
 Results multiplied by one hundred
 0.003x100
 Equals percent change
 0.3



 A Note on Seasonally Adjusted and Unadjusted Data
  
 Because price data are used for different purposes by different
 groups, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes seasonally adjusted
 as well as unadjusted changes each month.

 For analyzing general price trends in the economy, seasonally adjusted
 changes are usually preferred since they eliminate the effect of
 changes that normally occur at the same time and in about the same
 magnitude every year--such as price movements resulting from changing
 climatic conditions, production cycles, model changeovers, holidays,
 and sales.

 The unadjusted data are of primary interest to consumers concerned
 about the prices they actually pay.  Unadjusted data also are used
 extensively for escalation purposes.  Many collective bargaining
 contract agreements and pension plans, for example, tie compensation
 changes to the Consumer Price Index before adjustment for seasonal
 variation.

 Seasonal factors used in computing the seasonally adjusted indexes are
 derived by the X-12-ARIMA Seasonal Adjustment Method.  Seasonally
 adjusted indexes and seasonal factors are computed annually.  Each
 year, the last 5 years of seasonally adjusted data are revised.  Data
 from January 2008 through December 2012 were replaced in January 2013.
 Exceptions to the usual revision schedule were: the updated seasonal
 data at the end of 1977 replaced data from 1967 through 1977; and, in
 January 2002, dependently seasonally adjusted series were revised for
 January 1987-December 2001 as a result of a change in the aggregation
 weights for dependently adjusted series. For further information,
 please see "Aggregation of Dependently Adjusted Seasonally Adjusted
 Series," in the October 2001 issue of the CPI Detailed Report.

 Effective with the publication of data from January 2006 through
 December 2010 in January 2011, the Video and audio series and the
 Information technology, hardware and services series were changed from
 independently adjusted to dependently adjusted.  This resulted in an
 increase in the number of seasonal components used in deriving
 seasonal movement of the All items and 54 other lower level
 aggregations, from 73 for the publication of January 1998 through
 December 2005 data to 82 for the publication of seasonally adjusted
 data for January 2006 and later.  Each year the seasonal status of
 every series is reevaluated based upon certain statistical criteria.
 If any of the 82 components change their seasonal adjustment status
 from seasonally adjusted to not seasonally adjusted, not seasonally
 adjusted data will be used in the aggregation of the dependent series
 for the last 5 years, but the seasonally adjusted indexes before that
 period will not be changed.  Note: 37 of the 82 components are not
 seasonally adjusted for 2013.

 Seasonally adjusted data, including the all items index levels, are
 subject to revision for up to five years after their original release.
 For this reason, BLS advises against the use of these data in
 escalation agreements.

 Effective with the calculation of the seasonal factors for 1990, the
 Bureau of Labor Statistics has used an enhanced seasonal adjustment
 procedure called Intervention Analysis Seasonal Adjustment for some
 CPI series.  Intervention Analysis Seasonal Adjustment allows for
 better estimates of seasonally adjusted data.  Extreme values and/or
 sharp movements which might distort the seasonal pattern are estimated
 and removed from the data prior to calculation of seasonal factors.
 Beginning with the calculation of seasonal factors for 1996, X-12-
 ARIMA software was used for Intervention Analysis Seasonal Adjustment.

 For the seasonal factors introduced in January 2013, BLS adjusted 31
 series using Intervention Analysis Seasonal Adjustment, including
 selected food and beverage items, motor fuels, electricity and
 vehicles.  For example, this procedure was used for the Motor fuel
 series to offset the effects of events such as damage to oil
 refineries from Hurricane Katrina.

 For a complete list of Intervention Analysis Seasonal Adjustment
 series and explanations, please refer to the article "Intervention
 Analysis Seasonal Adjustment", located on our website at
 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpisapage.htm.

 For additional information on seasonal adjustment in the CPI, please
 write to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division of Consumer Prices
 and Price Indexes, Washington, DC 20212 or contact Chris Graci at
 (202) 691-5826, or by e-mail at graci.christopher@bls.gov or contact
 Carlyle Jackson at (202) 691-6984, or by e-mail at
 jackson.carlyle@bls.gov .  If you have general questions about the
 CPI, please call our information staff at (202) 691-7000.