For over 30 years, American women have largely surpassed men in earning a bachelor’s degree. In this post, we look at how educational attainment and gender manifest themselves specifically in the labor force.

Before July 2019, college-educated men typically occupied a greater share of the US civilian labor force than college-educated women. Since then, with the exception of a few months, women have occupied the greater share. The FRED graph above shows the composition of men and women 25 years and older from different education groups in the labor force: In January 2024, for example, the share of women 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree was 22.5%. The share of men 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree was 21.5%.

Women have increased their representation in the college-educated labor force since 2019 and maintained that trend even after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a recession and a decline in the size of the US labor force.

On the other hand, there has been little change in the gender composition of the labor force with less education than a college degree. In July 2019, men 25 years and older with less than a bachelor’s degree comprised 33.2% of the labor force and women in the same category comprised 25.7%. In January 2024, those shares were 31.7% and 24.2%, respectively. Overall, the levels of men and women with less education than a college degree are still higher than the levels of college-educated men and women. And the gap between the share of men and women with less education than a college degree is also larger than the gap between the share of college-educated men and women.

How this graph was created: In FRED, search for and select “Civilian Labor Force – Bachelor’s Degree and Higher, 25 years and over, Women.” This is line (a). From the “Edit Graph” menu and under the “Customize data” tab, search and add “Civilian Labor Force – 25 years and over.” This is line (b). In the “Formula” section, apply a/b*100. For the share of women ages 25 and older with less than a four-year degree, search for the lines in the following order: “Civilian Labor Force – Less than a High School Diploma, 25 years and over, Women”, “Civilian Labor Force – Some College or Associate Degree, 25 years and over, Women”, “Civilian Labor Force – High School Graduates, No College, 25 years and over, Women”, and “Civilian Labor Force – 25 years and over.” Apply the formula (a+b+c)/d*100. Repeat these steps to find the share of men in the labor force.

Suggested by Hoang Le and Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria.

Estate taxes are commonly called “death taxes” because they’re levied on the value of everything you own at the time of death. Only estates valued above a filing threshold, set in 2024 at $13.61 million, are taxed by the Internal Revenue Service. Similarly, the only gifts that are taxed are those valued above $18,000.

The FRED graph above shows data from the US Census on the revenue collected quarterly by all 50 states and the District of Columbia from estate (death) and gift taxes between 1994 and 2023. The data are divided by GDP to make it easier to observe the proportional size of this source of revenue over time.

The relative value of the revenue generated by these taxes has declined by about two-thirds since the Economic Growth and Taxpayer Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reduced federal tax rates and increased exemptions. Afterward, many states repealed their own estate taxes.

Had Benjamin Franklin seen our FRED graph, he might have penned a different thought about the certainty of death and taxes—or at least about the certainty of “death” taxes.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for “State Tax Collections: T50 Death and Gift Taxes for the United States.” Next, click on the “Edit Graph” button and select the “Line 1” tab to customize the data. Start by searching for “Gross Domestic Product, Millions of Dollars, Not Seasonally Adjusted.” Click on “Add” and then type the formula (a/b). Make sure to click on “Apply.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

Inflation reflects how prices of goods and services in the economy are changing. One measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI), which is the common headline number reported in the media.

The numbers for the CPI are released monthly, so it can be hard to tell what the CPI is doing on a daily or weekly basis. But what if there were prices you could observe directly that would serve as a closely related proxy for the CPI?

The FRED graph above shows that the CPI for all items and the CPI for sugar and sweets move similarly. Another way to say this is that these two price indices are highly correlated. Since 1947 the correlation is 0.99, and since the middle of 2020 the correlation is 0.97. Having a positive correlation that’s this close to 1 means that, as the CPI for sugar and sweets increases, so does the CPI for all items.

So, are price changes for sugary treats an indication of price changes overall? Well, this correlation between the two indices might be spurious. As an earlier FRED Blog post described it, “because time series can exhibit a common trend, it becomes difficult to interpret whether there is a relationship between them beyond that common trend.”

One way to investigate potential spurious correlation is to see if there is also a correlation in the growth rates of the two variables. We do this in our second graph by plotting the growth rate from the month prior for both price indices.

The correlation between the growth rates is 0.97 since 2020, which suggests this correlation is sound and not spurious. So, you could track the prices of candy or cookies on a daily or weekly basis at the grocery store to gauge what’s going on with the CPI for all items.

How these graphs were created: First graph: Search FRED for and select the “CPI for All items” series. In the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “CPI Sugar and Sweets.” To normalize the data, selecte the last option in the the “Units” dropdown menu: “Index (Scale value to 100 for chosen date)”; choose 1990-01-01 and click “Copy to All.” Display the graph since 1947-01-01, which is the common start of the two series. Second graph: From the first graph, choose Units “Percent Change,” click “Copy to All,” and display the graph since 2000-01-01.

Suggested by B. Ravikumar and Amy Smaldone.