1 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Overview of the 

Consumer Expenditures Surveys

Adam Safir, Program Manager

BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys Program

USITC Symposium: The Distributional Effects of Trade and Trade Policy on U.S. Workers

Session F: Government Datasets for Analyzing Distributional Effects of Trade among Different Subgroups

Group 2: Individual and Household Level Microdata

April 6, 2022
2 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov

CE Program Mission

 The mission of the CE program is to collect, process, and 

disseminate information that presents a statistical picture 

of consumer spending for the Consumer Price Index, 

government agencies, and private data users. 

 This mission encompasses analyzing CE data to produce 

socio-economic studies of consumer spending, and 

providing CE data users with assistance, education, and 

tools for working with the data.
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BLS Data Provide a Detailed Breakdown 

of ~70 Percent of GDP (estimated by BEA)

PCE
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Changes in Real GDP can be Explained by CE Data
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CE Data Products

 BLS provides CE data on expenditures, income, and demographic 

characteristics of consumers in the United States. 

 These data are available in news releases, tables, LABSTAT 

database, reports, and public use microdata files.

 These data allow us to shed light on U.S. household spending habits 

across all ages, locations, and backgrounds.
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CE Data Products

 Economic Analysis 

 News Release: https://www.bls.gov/cex/news.htm

 Beyond the Numbers: https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxwebarticles.htm

 Monthly Labor Review: https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxart.htm

 Spotlight on Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxspotlight.htm

 The Economics Daily: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/consumer-expenditure-survey.htm

 CE Tables

 Data Tables: https://www.bls.gov/cex/tables.htm

 LABSTAT database: https://www.bls.gov/cex/data.htm

 CE Public Use Microdata (PUMD)

 Data Files: https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_data.htm
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Economic Analysis

 News release

Published in September for the annual release 

Contains notable changes in consumer expenditures

– Selected demographic groups 

– Income quintiles

Contains charts and tables that focus on spending differences between the 

current and prior year

“Average expenditures per consumer unit for 2020 were $61,334, a 2.7-percent 

decrease from 2019 levels, and average pretax income increased by 1.8 percent”
8 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov

-2.7

0.2

-1.4

-2.8

1.1

-5.5

1.8

9.9

5.4

4.7 4.1

-0.2

-8.0

-6.0

-4.0

-2.0

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

All consumer units Lowest Second Third Fourth Highest

Expenditures Pre-tax incomes

Economic Analysis

 Percent change in expenditures and income before taxes by 

income quintiles, 2019-2020 
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Economic Analysis

 What the Consumer Expenditure Surveys tell us about travel in 

the COVID-19 pandemic
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CE Tables

Tables provide expenditure estimates by demo breakdown:

 CU (11 tables)

 Income, income quintiles, income deciles

 Region, population size, area type (urban/rural)

 CU composition, education, tenure, earners, CU size

 Reference person (6 tables)

 Age, selected age ranges, generation

 Ethnicity, occupation, race
11 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov

CE Public Use Microdata (PUMD)

 Data files:

 File types available include:

SAS (*.sas7bdat), STATA (*.dta), SPSS (*.sav), comma-delimited (*.csv) 

 Documentation: 

 Getting Started Guide

 Supplementary resources:

 Provide information regarding PUMD disclosure methods and requirements
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CE Public Use Microdata (PUMD)

 What's new?

Historical PUMD

State weights, which allow users to develop weighted means for 

specific states

– California

– Florida

– New Jersey

– New York

– Texas
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CE Public Use Microdata (PUMD)

PUMD allow users to conduct more detailed analyses, answering 

questions such as:

 What are the spending patterns of the American middle class?

 What are the effects of various policy initiatives on spending?

 How does grocery spending relate to U.S. dietary recommendations?

 What are the effects of SNAP benefits on spending?

 What are changes in ride hailing/ride sharing expenditures?
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Summary Information about the CE Surveys

Dataset name Consumer Expenditure Surveys; Interview Survey and 

Diary Survey

Website https://www.bls.gov/cex/

Microdata access https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd.htm

Survey coverage Civilian noninstitutional population

Survey frequency Annual survey

Longitudinal component Yes; four quarterly interviews
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Summary Information about the CE Surveys

Demographics for underserved 

communities

Yes – Race, ethnicity, rural

No – Religion, SOGI, disability, poverty level of 

surrounding community

Access to restricted use 

microdata

https://www.bls.gov/rda/home.htm 

Information about content or 

design changes

https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_doc.htm

https://www.bls.gov/cex/ce-improvements.htm

Value added Provides information on the complete range of 

consumers’ expenditures as well as their incomes and 

demographic characteristics

Examples of research applications https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxreport.htm

https://www.bls.gov/cex/research_papers/researchpaper-catalog.htm
Contact Information

16 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Adam Safir

Program Manager

Consumer Expenditure Surveys Program

safir.adam@bls.gov