Prices of labor-intensive services vs. goods
This chart compares prices for labor-intensive services with goods and worker wages since 2000. It uses BLS consumer-price components and earnings data via FRED, each rebased to a common index; quality adjustment and broad component definitions can affect how individual lines relate to sticker prices.
The original idea: Productivity differences can make labor-intensive services grow more expensive relative to manufactured goods. Read the original ↗ · Plain-language overview ↗
What does it show?
Labor-intensive services have become far more expensive, while many manufactured goods have barely risen in price.
Methodology
BLS CPI-U component indices via FRED, monthly, rebased to January 2000 = 100: hospital and related services; tuition, other school fees, and childcare; new vehicles; apparel; durable goods; toys; and computers and peripheral equipment where FRED resolves it — with average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers (AHETPI) as the wage reference and all-items CPI as the gray baseline. FRED does not carry item-level series for every BLS component (televisions, software, and college tuition alone are absent), so some lines are the closest published aggregate; each component resolves from a candidate-ID list and the run log records the series actually used. Quality-adjusted BLS methodology means falling lines reflect hedonic improvement as well as sticker prices. Points are thinned for display; underlying data are monthly.
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) ↗