blogs.bls.govOccupational Outlook Handbook - blogsblsgov

An official website of the United States government Here is how you know United States Department of Labor The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Follow Us | Release Calendar | Blog Search button Search: Menu Search button Search: Home Subject Areas » Inflation & Prices Spending & Time Use Unemployment Employment Pay & Benefits Productivity Workplace Injuries International Demographics Industries Business Costs Occupations Geography Resources For » Business Leaders Consumers Developers Economists Investors Jobseekers Media Public Policymakers Students & Teachers Survey Respondents At a Glance Tables » U.S. Economy Regions, States, & Areas Industries MORE » Announcements BLS Speakers Available Errata Research Response Rates Statistical Sites Subjects Inflation & Prices » Consumer Price Index Producer Price Indexes Import/Export Price Indexes Employment Cost Index Contract Escalation Price Index Research Pay & Benefits » Employment Costs National Compensation Data Wages by Area & Occupation Earnings by Demographics Earnings by Industry County Wages Benefits Compensation Research Strikes & Lockouts Spending & Time Use » Consumer Expenditures How Americans Spend Time Unemployment » National Unemployment Rate State & Local Unemployment Rates Unemployment Research Employment » National Employment State & Local Employment State & County Employment Worker Characteristics Employment Projections Job Openings & Labor Turnover Employment by Occupation Work Experience Over Time Business Employment Dynamics Foreign Direct Investment Employment Research Workplace Injuries » Occupational Requirements » Productivity » Labor Productivity & Costs Multifactor Productivity Productivity Research International » International Technical Cooperation Import/Export Price Indexes Regional Offices » New England (Boston) New York-New Jersey (NY City) Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia) Southeast (Atlanta) Midwest (Chicago) Southwest (Dallas) Mountain-Plains (Kansas City) West (San Francisco) Data Tools Data Retrieval Tools » Top Picks Series Report One Screen Multi-Screen Maps Calculators Public Data API Customized Tables » Text Files News Release Tables More Sources of Data » Restricted Data Access Discontinued Databases FAQs Special Notices More Sources of Data Publications Latest Publications » The Economics Daily Monthly Labor Review Beyond the Numbers Spotlight on Statistics Reports Commissioner’s Corner Videos Career Outlook Occupational Outlook Handbook Geographic Profile Handbook of Methods National Longitudinal Surveys News Magazines & Journals Chartbooks Catalog of PublicationsResearch Papers Copyright Information Contact & Help Economic Releases Latest Releases » Major Economic Indicators » Schedules for news Releases » By Month By News Release Current Year Prior Years Archived News Releases » Employment & Unemployment » Monthly Quarterly, annual, and other Inflation & Prices » Pay & Benefits & Workplace Injuries » Productivity & Technology » Employment Projections » Regional News Releases » Students Games & Quizzes Student Resources Teacher´s Desk History of BLS FAQs Beta Redesigned News Releases » Industry Productivity Viewer » Data Finder » State and County Map » Comparing Pay Measures » Home Menu About this Blog Commissioner’s Biography Comment Policy Privacy and Security Statement 2009-2013 Posts Contact Us Search Commissioner’s blog Search for: Archive by month Archive by month Select Month January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 Archive by topic Archive by topic Select Category Benefits and Compensation Beyond the Numbers BLS Management Career Outlook Consumer Spending Earnings and Wages Educational Attainment Employee Recognition Employment Employment Projections Geographic Information Green Jobs Industries Inflation and Prices Job Openings, Hires, and Separations Labor Force Characteristics Monthly Labor Review Occupational Outlook Handbook Occupational Requirements Occupations Productivity Speeches and Presentations Spotlight on Statistics Students (K-12) Survey Respondents The Economics Daily Time Use U.S. Statistical System Unemployment Union Membership Volunteering Why This Counts Workplace Injuries and Illnesses Subscribe to email updates E-mail: You Paid HOW MUCH for a Ticket to the Game? January 28, 2020 BLS Commissioner I hear there is a big game coming up soon, and ticket prices are pretty high (and I’m not talking about the Washington Nationals’ Opening Day). So I reached out to the BLS experts on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to learn a little more about how we handle the change in the price of sporting event tickets. We hear the face value of a ticket to a certain high-profile game is X, but then we hear the cost on the secondary market is Y (often several times X). But what if the game features a major-market team or a high-profile player, versus a game with less well-known teams or players? What if heavy rains are predicted for an outdoor game, or the halftime entertainer has recently encountered some social-media scandal? How can the CPI account for such differences when determining the rate of change in the price of a ticket? What I learned It turns out that BLS has experts in the price of sporting event tickets, and the experts know lots of answers—and know more questions we could explore. BLS even has detailed instructions for determining the price of tickets to sporting events—17 pages of instructions! Sporting events are a subset of the CPI item category Admissions,” which also includes movies and concerts. Here’s a chart showing the annual rate of change in the price of admission to sporting events over the past 20 years. Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below. Constant quality A basic principle behind the CPI is what’s known as the matched model . That is, we want to determine the price of comparable ( matched ) items from one time period to the next. The fancy CPI term for this is constant quality . This means we have to carefully identify the characteristics of the item we choose to study, with the goal of keeping those characteristics constant each time we determine the price. The source of tickets included in the CPI sample can include both individual sports franchises (such as the Mudville nine ) and ticket resellers. In all cases we want to determine the price of a ticket based on a variety of price-determining factors that we hope to hold constant over time. For example: Admission type, such as adult versus child, but also individual tickets versus season tickets or a multigame ticket plan. When we follow the price of season tickets, we do so during a limited time of the year. For...