The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria advanced 0.5 percent from November to January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the recent increase was due largely to a 0.5-percent rise in the all items less food and energy index. The food index and energy index also increased since November, up 0.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

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Technical Note

The Consumer Price Index for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria is published bi-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 94 percent of the total population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 28 percent of the total 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 5,000 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.

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, and counties comprising Cape Cod and the Islands, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Unemployment rates				Net change from
	July 2012	July 2013	July 2014	July 2015(1)	July 2012 to July 2013	July 2013 to July 2014	July 2014 to July 2015(1)
United States	8.6	7.7	6.5	5.6	-0.9	-1.2	-0.9
Barnstable County, Mass.	6.4	6.4	5.5	4.7	0.0	-0.9	-0.8
Dukes County, Mass.	5.4	5.7	4.8	4.0	0.3	-0.9	-0.8
Nantucket County, Mass.	4.1	3.8	3.2	2.5	-0.3	-0.6	-0.7
(1) Data for the counties on Cape Cod and the Islands are preliminary for the most recent month.