FRED has added eight new quarterly series covering The Community Bank Sentiment Index (CBSI) from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The CBSI is an index derived from quarterly polling of community bankers across the nation. As community bankers answer questions about their outlook on the economy, their answers are analyzed and compiled into a single number.

FRED has added 740 new historical and active series from the Board of Governors’ G.17 Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization statistical release.

About one-third of the series are historical series and the remaining two-thirds are active series. The industrial production (IP) index measures the real output of the manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities industries; the reference period for the index is 2017. Manufacturing consists of those industries included in the North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS, definition of manufacturing plus those industries—logging and newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishing—that have traditionally been considered to be manufacturing and included in the industrial sector.

A complete description of the market and industry structures, including details regarding series classification, relative importance weights, and data sources, is available on the Board’s website about G.17 Industrial Production Capacity Utilization Releases.

FRED had added 263 new series from Indeed Hiring Lab’s job posting tracker data repository. The added series are job postings by occupation, such as nursing or management, for the following countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Indeed calculates the percentage change in seasonally adjusted job postings since February 1, 2020, using a 7-day trailing average. February 1, 2020, is the pre-pandemic baseline. Indeed seasonally adjusts each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors, and sub-national geographies, is seasonally adjusted separately.

FRED has added over 100 new historical and active series from the Board of Governors’ H.15 Selected Interest Rates statistical release.

About two-thirds of the series added to FRED are historical series from the H.15 Statistical Release, including daily interest rates for Treasury bills, commercial paper, financial paper, and dealer offering rates, as well as weekly, monthly, and annual averages of H.15 historical series.

The active series added to FRED are annual averages of existing daily interest rate series, including market yields on U.S. Treasury securities, Treasury bills, commercial paper, and discount window primary credit rates. The active series added also include daily (business days) and biweekly frequency versions of the federal funds effective rate, as well as daily (7-day) bank prime loan rates and discount window primary credit rates.

As surely as the sun rises, FRED continues to provide great data tools. The latest is our new mapping feature. You can customize, share, and download geographical maps of data directly in FRED.

These maps are available for series in a dataset that have geographical characteristics, such as per capita personal income for U.S. states: For example, Missouri personal income can be examined on a U.S. state map.

Our GeoFRED website will close down Sept. 1, 2022, and we know a change like this can be disruptive, especially if you use GeoFRED as a teaching tool. So we hope our new FRED map feature will be a helpful alternative to engage with data. 

Maps provide a cross-sectional perspective that lets you compare regions on a map while complementing and expanding the data analysis you get on a time-series graph. FRED has 9 types of maps: U.S. counties, U.S. metro areas, U.S. states, nations, Federal Reserve Districts, Census regions, Census divisions, BEA regions, and NECTAs (New England city and town areas).

Check out our FRED map tutorials for additional guidance on how to use this new feature and try it out to:

• Supplement your data story with an interactive map.
• Share your customized map with an option to automatically update the map with the latest data.
• Embed your maps in your favorite blog site.
• Download all data on the map into a single file.

FRED has expanded its coverage of the Federal Reserve Board’s G.19 Consumer Credit Release with an additional 36 monthly series.

These series cover Total and Revolving/Non-revolving Consumer Credit.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago renamed the Chicago Fed Survey of Business Conditions (CFSBC) to the Chicago Fed Survey of Economic Conditions (CFSEC) to better represent the survey’s aim and base of respondents. This change is now reflected in FRED as well.

The goal of the survey remains unchanged: to assess the state of the economy in the Seventh Federal Reserve District, which is served by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The survey has always been filled out by both business and nonbusiness contacts.

For more details, see the CFSEC.

FRED has added 38 historical commercial paper (CP) series from before April 2006: On April 10, 2006, the Federal Reserve Board made major changes to its CP outstanding calculations. New outstanding categories were added, some existing category definitions were modified, and current and historical CP issuer information was updated. For more information, refer to the Commercial Paper Rates and Outstanding Summary.

CP consists of short-term, promissory notes issued primarily by corporations (up to 270 days in maturity but averaging about 30 days). CP is often used to raise cash for current transactions as a lower-cost alternative to bank loans.