Prices in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), rose 0.4 percent for the third consecutive month in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley attributed the May increase to higher prices for shelter. (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 3.9 percent. (See chart 1 and table A). The index for all items less food and energy rose 4.0 percent over the year. Energy prices advanced 8.2 percent, and food prices rose 2.0 percent. (See table 1.)

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, May 2021–May 2024

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
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
May 2023	3.5	5.1
Jun 2023	2.5	3.8
Jul 2023	3.2	4.4
Aug 2023	3.5	4.5
Sep 2023	3.7	4.1
Oct 2023	3.5	4.0
Nov 2023	3.0	3.9
Dec 2023	2.9	3.4
Jan 2024	3.1	3.7
Feb 2024	2.9	3.4
Mar 2024	3.4	3.5
Apr 2024	3.8	3.9
May 2024	3.9	4.0

Food prices declined 0.3 percent in May, after a 0.7-percent increase in April. Food-at-home fell 0.8 percent, with lower prices reported in five of the six grocery categories including cereals and bakery products (-3.7 percent), fruits and vegetables (-1.8 percent), and dairy and related products (-1.9 percent). Prices for food away from home increased 0.4 percent.

From May 2023 to May 2024, food prices rose 2.0 percent. Prices for food away from home increased 4.2 percent, and prices for food at home rose 0.8 percent.

The energy index rose 0.2 percent in May, following a 0.3-percent rise in April. Gasoline prices, up 3.6 percent, drove the increase. Declines in household energy prices—including a decrease in electricity prices (-2.5 percent), natural gas prices (-0.4 percent), and declines in prices for fuel oil—partially offset the increases.

Over the year, energy prices advanced 8.2 percent, led by a 10.7-percent rise in household energy prices. Prices increased for electricity (15.3 percent), natural gas (3.7 percent), and fuel oil. Gasoline prices rose 3.0 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.5 percent in May. Shelter prices rose 1.2 percent, with owners’ equivalent rent increasing 1.8 percent—the largest monthly increase since February 1994. Residential rent rose 0.4 percent. Additionally, prices rose for recreation (1.3 percent) and new and used motor vehicles (0.4 percent). The May increases were partially offset by declines in prices for motor vehicle insurance, other goods and services (-1.6 percent), airline fares, and household furnishings and operations (-0.7 percent).

For the year ended in May 2024, the index for all items less food and energy advanced 4.0 percent, led by a 5.8-percent increase in shelter prices. Within shelter, owners’ equivalent rent increased 7.0 percent, and residential rent rose 4.4 percent. Prices were also up for motor vehicle insurance and recreation (6.3 percent). Partly offsetting the increases were declines in medical care prices (-1.6 percent), used cars and trucks (-8.6 percent), and apparel (-2.8 percent).

The Consumer Price Index for June 2024 is scheduled to be released on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

The Consumer Price Index for New York is published monthly. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure 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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