Service and goods prices since 2000
This chart reduces the long-run divergence between service prices, goods prices, and wages to their starting and latest values. It uses the same BLS data as the full price-divergence chart; omitting the intervening path makes cumulative change legible but hides volatility and timing.
What does it show?
Since 2000, hospital and education prices have risen much faster than wages and manufactured-goods prices.
Methodology
Endpoint view of the same BLS CPI-U component and average-hourly-earnings series used in Prices of labor-intensive services vs. goods. Every line begins at its January 2000 rebased value of 100 and ends at the latest month available for every displayed series; using a common endpoint prevents unequal reporting lags from changing the comparison. The intervening monthly path is intentionally omitted, so this poster view shows cumulative divergence rather than volatility or timing. Quality-adjusted BLS methods mean declines can reflect quality gains as well as lower sticker prices.
Sources
- Hospital services CPI (CUSR0000SEMD) ↗
- Tuition, fees and childcare CPI (CUSR0000SEEB) ↗
- Average hourly earnings (AHETPI) ↗
- New vehicles CPI (CUSR0000SETA01) ↗
- Apparel CPI (CPIAPPSL) ↗
- Durable goods CPI (CUSR0000SAD) ↗
- Toys CPI (CUSR0000SERE01) ↗
- Computers and peripherals CPI (CUUR0000SEEE01) ↗
- All-items CPI (CPIAUCSL) ↗