Economy articles
What does the Department of Commerce (DOC) do?
The Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive branch agency responsible for supporting economic growth within the US. Its functions include promoting job creation, sustainable business development, and ensuring economic competitiveness. It was established in 1903.
What does the Department of Labor (DOL) do?
The Department of Labor (DOL) is an executive branch agency responsible for overseeing the American labor force and working conditions. Its functions include enforcing wage and hour standards and union law, regulating workplace safety, administering unemployment benefits and workers’ compensation, collecting labor market data, and promoting workforce development. It was established in 1913.
What is the gross domestic product (GDP) in the US?
About $24T in Q3 2025. Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services a country or state produces — it’s the sum of consumer spending, business investment, government spending, and net exports. It is often used to quantify the size of its economy. The $24T is the “real GDP,” which is adjusted to account for inflation to make it easier to compare the size of an economy over time.
How do national parks affect the economy?
In 2024, the 332 million visitors to national parks spent an estimated $29.0 billion dollars. Visitors spent this money in what the National Park Service (NPS) calls a “local gateway region,” or local economies near a national park. A local gateway region includes nearby towns and counties where park visitors usually stop to shop or stay overnight. For most parks, it’s defined as all counties within 60 miles of the park’s boundary. . Adjusted for inflation, 2024 visitor spending was the highest in more than a decade. The second-highest was 2023 at $27.2 billion and third-highest was 2019 at $25.7 billion. But right after that came 2020. The biggest single-year spending drop was from 2019 to 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted visits to national parks and related spending had its biggest single year drop, down 31.8% to $17.5 billion.
What does the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) do?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a subdivision of the US Department of Labor responsible for ensuring safe and healthy working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. OSHA's mission is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by issuing and enforcing rules (called standards) for workplace safety and health. It was established in 1970.
How much do teachers get paid in the US?
About $63,100 per year in 2024. That’s the annual median wage for pre-K-12 teachers across the United States, based on estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median marks the middle point—half of teachers earn more and half earn less. The lowest-paid 10% earned $46,900 or less, while the highest-paid 10% earned $102,300 or more.
Which states have the highest police officer salaries?
Police officers in California had higher salaries than officers in any other state in 2023, earning a median of $113,460, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The other highest-paying states were Washington ($99,510), Illinois ($98,430), New Jersey ($91,850), and Alaska ($90,060). Salaries weren’t this high across the board, though — the national average was $72,280. After accounting for cost-of-living variance among states, California remains the highest-paying state. Illinois and Washington swap the second and third spots, and Pennsylvania rises from ninth to fifth.
Minimum wage in America: How many people are earning $7.25 an hour?
Although the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the minimum an employer must pay depends on the state in which the employee resides. Many states have mandated minimum wages that are different from the federal minimum
What are free trade agreements and how do they affect trade?
Free trade agreements are strategic partnerships between countries that trade with each other by reducing barriers to entry to the international market for producers, standardizing labor practices, and ensuring affordability and safety for consumers, and more.Compared to a trade war, free trade agreements are like peace treaties — they’re meant to bring countries into alignment and promote a fair and harmonious relationship that promotes trade and is mutually beneficial for all countries involved.What do free trade agreements do?Free trade agreements aim to keep international markets open and flexible for consumers and domestic industries by:Reducing trade barriers like tariffs. This lowers the cost of imports, keeping prices lower and giving consumers more purchase optionsProtecting intellectual property rights of domestic producers. Limiting competitive opportunities on proprietary products preserves access to international markets for domestic industries.Developing product and labor practice standards across markets. This protects consumers by ensuring that imported products are safe and meet the same kinds of standards as their domestic alternativesProtecting against exclusionary rules around investing or participating in financial markets
AAPI Demographics: Data on Asian American ethnicities, geography, income, and education
There are 25.8 million Asian Americans living in the US, making up 7.7% of the population. Among them, 3.6 million identify as Asian in combination with another race.Asian Americans are sometimes grouped with Pacific Islanders under the “AAPI” umbrella, and the joint Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month is celebrated annually in May. The AAPI population is the fastest growing racial group in the US, with a population that nearly doubled from 2000 to 2023.The demographics of Asian Americans vary drastically across ethnic groups. Taiwanese and Indian Americans have the highest educational and income outcomes, while Southeast Asian Americans have lower incomes and educational attainment.
How much does the average American family pay in taxes?
One of the simplest ways to think about the US standard of living is to consider how much people earn in income, pay in taxes, and receive in government transfers. A government transfer can be cash, or non-cash in the form of services like Medicaid and Medicare.In 2021, the average American family in the middle 20% of income earners paid $17,902 in taxes to federal, state, and local governments. This includes direct taxes, such as income taxes, as well as indirect taxes, like payroll taxes. Of all the taxes the middle 20% paid in 2021, $10,391 went to federal income tax.
Is the American labor force getting older?
In 2022, 8.2% of people 75 and older were part of the labor force. Their colleagues included 18.4% of the Americans between ages 70 and 74, and 33.3% of those from 65 to 69.How many Americans over 65 work?In 2022, 19.2% of Americans over 65 participated in the labor force, according to the Current Population Survey from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By October 2023, that ticked up to 19.3%.How has labor force participation for older Americans changed?The labor force participation rate for Americans 65 and older decreased by 7.8 percentage points from 27% to 19.2% between 1948 and 2022. While the participation rate was lower in 2022, there were more people in the labor force in this age cohort in 2022 (10.9 million people) compared to 1948 (2.9 million people) due in part to population growth.During that period, labor force participation increased by 13.8 percentage points for Americans aged 65 to 69, 8.2 percentage points for people from 70 to 74, and 4 percentage points for folks 75 and older.
Which Americans are struggling to make ends meet?
More than one-third of American adults are struggling to make ends meet, and some demographics groups are having more trouble than others: in a 2024 Census survey, nearly half the multiracial population reported having a hard time, along with 46.0% of Hispanics and 40.0% of cisgender women. Just under 20% of adults said they found it somewhat difficult to afford their usual household expenses in the previous week, and 17.3% found it very difficult. The rest found it either a little (28.9%) or not at all (34.0%) difficult. Which age groups are struggling the most? Adults younger than 55 are having more trouble paying the bills than older adults. Over 40% of adults ages 18 to 54 reported at least some difficulty, compared to 36.4% of 55- to 64-year-olds and 23.2% of those 65 and older.
How is the middle class changing?
The middle class is one of the most talked about groups in the US. Politicians across the political spectrum bring up the middle class often when discussing potential legislation or when trying to persuade voters. But even aside from the claims made on the campaign trail, the American middle class has changed in some key ways since 2000.Since then, the middle class is older, and less likely to be married. Those in the middle class are working less and earning less money. And government programs are playing a larger role in the economic well being of those in the middle 20% of the US.
Which US cities have the most competitive housing markets?
These three metro areas have some of the most competitive housing markets in the country, with both low supply and high demand: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California; Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire; and Rochester, New York.The Omaha-Council Bluffs market in Nebraska and Iowa is the most supply-constrained housing market in the country, with an average of 0.75 active listings per 1,000 households in the first quarter of 2023. This is 84% lower than the nationwide average of 4.59.How is a competitive housing market determined?Traditionally, a competitive housing market is measured through the balance of housing supply and demand. This article focuses on two metrics: days on the market and active listings.When a lot of people are on the market trying to buy a home, houses tend to be bought quickly. When a city has a low median number of days on the market for available homes, it indicates high demand for the available houses. The nationwide average was around 65 days for the first three months of 2023. Supply constraints also make a housing market more competitive. Cities with a low number of houses available have more competitive housing markets. Some cities have less than one available home for every 1,000 households. Nationwide in the first quarter of 2023, there were 4.59 homes on the market per 1,000 households.Which cities have the lowest supply of housing for sale?The Omaha, Nebraska metro area has the lowest housing supply, at 0.75 available homes for sale per 1,000 households. in the area have resulted in a decrease in housing inventory over the past few decades.The next five most supply-constrained metro areas for housing include three college towns: Cape Girardeau on the border of Missouri and Illinois; South Bend-Mishawaka bordering Indiana and Michigan; Ithaca, New York; — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California; and St. Louis. These metro areas all have less than 1.25 homes on sale per month for every 1,000 households.Across the US, housing supply trends also emerge.
How does Gross Domestic Product differ by state?
The real US gross domestic product (GDP) — the value of all goods and services produced in the US, adjusted for inflation to make GDP comparable over time — increased by 1.9% in 2022. In today’s dollars (also known as nominal GDP), the national GDP surpassed $25 trillion for the first time in history.The real GDP, $21.82 trillion in 2022, has increased by 5.5% since 2019 ($20.69 trillion). But 2022 had a slower annual growth rate than 2021, when the US recorded its highest annual GDP growth rate in 37 years — an increase of 5.8%, from $20.23 trillion in 2020 to $21.41 trillion in 2021.