Question 1

Why these indicators and not others?

Accepted Answer

Because they are the smallest set that captures the working-age US experience without overlap. Real wage growth tells you whether pay is keeping up with prices. Unemployment and youth unemployment tell you whether work is available, with the youth figure as the canary in the coal mine. Labor force participation captures everyone outside the workforce entirely, which the headline unemployment rate ignores. Job openings tell you what employers are doing. Hourly earnings growth gives the nominal-not-real version of wages. A handful of numbers, no redundancy, all monthly cadence.

Question 2

How often does the data refresh?

Accepted Answer

The BLS Employment Situation report comes out on the first Friday of each month for the prior month (e.g. early May covers April). CPI follows around the 10th-15th of each month. Our Lambda fetches the new data the morning after each release. The page on this site refreshes every day at 08:00 UTC so the latest value is always within 24 hours of the underlying BLS publication.

Question 3

Why does the indicator card show a "+" or "-" badge?

Accepted Answer

The badge shows the change vs the previous month's observation, with colour coding for direction-of-good. Green means the number moved in the working person's favour (real wages up, unemployment down, job openings up). Red means the opposite. Some indicators are direction-neutral on a single month's data, in which case the badge is grey. The colour is purely about the working-person interpretation, not the political one.

Question 4

Where do you get the underlying data?

Accepted Answer

The BLS API (free, no auth required for most series) for labour market figures, and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) for rate-related context and income series. We do not use any third-party data brokers because the originals are free and publishing on top of a proprietary feed creates an availability dependency we do not need.

Question 5

How accurate is the state affordability table?

Accepted Answer

The state take-home figure is an estimate computed from the federal income tax schedule, standard deduction, FICA employee share (7.65%), and the relevant state income tax rate for a single filer. It does not account for state-specific deductions, local taxes, or pre-tax benefits. Treat it as a directional comparison across states, not a precise payroll figure. Median income and rent figures come from Census ACS and HUD FMR respectively.

Question 6

Is there a newsletter version of this?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. The page is always live and the underlying data refreshes monthly. A newsletter digest is on the roadmap; for now, bookmark the page and check it after the first Friday BLS release each month.