Prices in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), edged up 0.1 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley attributed the April increase to higher shelter prices. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 3.7 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) The index for all items less food and energy increased 4.4 percent over the year. Food prices increased 6.7 percent. (See table 1.) Energy prices dropped 10.6 percent, largely the result of a decrease in gasoline prices.

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, April 2020–April 2023

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
Apr 2020	1.1	1.5
May 2020	1.4	1.9
Jun 2020	1.3	1.5
Jul 2020	1.7	2.1
Aug 2020	1.4	1.8
Sep 2020	1.9	2.2
Oct 2020	1.7	2.0
Nov 2020	1.4	1.5
Dec 2020	1.6	1.7
Jan 2021	1.2	1.2
Feb 2021	1.4	0.9
Mar 2021	2.0	1.4
Apr 2021	3.2	2.6
May 2021	3.2	2.5
Jun 2021	4.1	3.7
Jul 2021	3.5	2.7
Aug 2021	3.7	2.6
Sep 2021	3.8	2.5
Oct 2021	4.3	2.8
Nov 2021	5.0	3.4
Dec 2021	4.4	3.0
Jan 2022	5.1	3.3
Feb 2022	5.1	4.0
Mar 2022	6.1	4.1
Apr 2022	6.3	4.4
May 2022	6.3	3.6
Jun 2022	6.7	4.1
Jul 2022	6.5	4.2
Aug 2022	6.6	4.6
Sep 2022	6.2	5.0
Oct 2022	6.0	4.9
Nov 2022	5.9	4.5
Dec 2022	6.3	5.4
Jan 2023	6.0	5.7
Feb 2023	6.0	5.6
Mar 2023	4.6	5.1
Apr 2023	3.7	4.4

Food prices rose 0.3 percent over the month in April. Food-away-from-home prices advanced 0.4 percent. Food at home prices increased 0.3 percent, with fruits and vegetables; and cereals and bakery products leading the rise among the six grocery categories.

For the year ending in April 2023, food prices increased 6.7 percent. Prices for food away from home advanced 7.6 percent, and prices for food at home rose 6.1 percent.

The energy index fell 0.6 percent over the month, after a 4.9-percent drop in March. Lower household energy prices (-3.1 percent) drove the decline. Within household energy, lower prices were reported for electricity (-3.0 percent), natural gas (-3.1 percent), and fuel oil.  By contrast, gasoline prices increased 4.0 percent.

From April 2022 to April 2023, energy prices declined 10.6 percent, fueled by a 15.3 percent drop in gasoline prices. Household energy declined 6.2 percent over the year, with a drop in electricity prices (-8.0 percent) and fuel oil prices, partially offset by an increase in prices for natural gas (1.9 percent).

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.1 percent in April. A 0.2-percent rise in shelter prices included increases for owners' equivalent rent (0.5 percent) and residential rent (0.4 percent) that were partially offset by a decline in lodging away from home. Additionally, the index for new and used motor vehicles rose 0.5 percent. Moderating the price increases in all items less food and energy were price declines for apparel (-3.0 percent) and other goods and services (-1.0 percent).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy increased 4.4 percent. Shelter prices, up 5.7 percent, included a 5.8-percent increase for owners’ equivalent rent and a 6.1-percent increase for residential rent—the largest over-the-year increase since November 2005.

The May 2023 Consumer Price Index for the New York-Newark-Jersey City area is scheduled to be released on June 13, 2023.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measures of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total U.S. population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 29 percent of the total U.S. population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, 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 CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 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.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000.  Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Core Based Statistical Area includes Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties in New York; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County in Pennsylvania.

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