Daily briefing · October 18, 2026

Today's Economic Brief

The latest official readings show consumer-price growth at 4.0%, unemployment at 4.2%, annualized real GDP growth at 2.2%. New releases and revisions can change that picture.

What changed

BLS · Oct 16, 2026

Major Economic Indicators Latest Numbers

Consumer Price Index (CPI): +0.6% in Sep 2026 News Release Historical Data Unemployment Rate: 4.2% in Sep 2026 News Release Historical Data Payroll Employment: +29,000(p) in Sep 2026 News Release Historical Data Average Hourly...

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Federal Reserve · Oct 13, 2026

Minutes of the Board's discount rate meetings on August 17, September 9, and September 16, 2026

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Cleveland Fed · Oct 13, 2026

Who's Driving Medicaid's Enrollment Growth?

Medicaid outlays per capita have risen fourfold since 1990, recently driven by nondisabled working adults who likely meet new community engagement requirements.

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Why it matters

Consumer-price growth is 4.0%, up 1.1 percentage points from Aug 2025.
Unemployment rate is 4.2%, down 0.1 percentage points from Aug 2025.
Federal funds rate is 3.88%, down 0.2 percentage points from Oct 2025.

These comparisons describe published observations; they do not assign causes.

What comes next

Tue, Oct 20 at 10:00 AM ETState Employment and Unemployment (Monthly)BLS
Wed, Oct 21 at 10:00 AM ETUsual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary WorkersBLS
Wed, Oct 28 at 10:00 AM ETQuarterly Data Series on Business Employment DynamicsBLS
Wed, Oct 28 at 10:00 AM ETMetropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment (Monthly)BLS
Wed, Oct 28 at 2:00 PM ETFOMC policy decisionFederal Reserve