Data Points: New resources and other noteworthy developments

Where do the federal rescue and bailout programs show up in the national accounts? Analysts at the Bureau of Economic Analysis say the direct payments made under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 will feed into the gross domestic product estimates, while loans and purchases of financial securities can be tracked through the Federal Reserve’s flow of funds data. See the details.

To track job losses in financial services, real estate and related sectors, check out new pages on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website.  Data on employment and pay, as well as figures from other major data series, are added to the pages as national reports are released.  As of November, the broadly defined financial activities supersector showed job losses of about 100,000 since July and a jobless rate of 5.2 percent.  See the details.

It’s official:  the U.S. economy has been in recession for the last year, according to late November pronouncement by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Go here for details on how the panel reached its decision and answers to frequently asked questions about the process.

The World Bank has created a series of pages on its website on the global financial crisis.  There are links to official news releases on the latest coordinated policy initiatives, transcripts of interviews, podcasts, and blogs from different observers. See a summary of the latest actions and links.

The Census Bureau released on Dec. 9 its first three-year estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS), based on data collected between 2005 and 2007. Estimates include all geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or more, and Census took note that the data will also cover midsize areas (20,000 to 64,999).  Characteristics of these midsize areas have not been released since the decennial census in 2000. See the ACS homepage

Releasing a wealth of data from its 2007 consumer expenditure survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that average annual expenditures per consumer unit rose 2.6 percent last year, about in line with inflation. See the full report for details by category.