Looking for a link to a site that can give me US '05 consumer spend by category (i.e. travel, finance, health)

Question

Looking to do a report on USA 2005 spend by category. Category examples are travel, finance, health, computing, electronics, apparel, automotive, real estate, etc...). I am sure that there are a lot of reports out there...does anyone know a link? Thanks.

Answer 1

This information is collected by a variety of government agencies, non-profits, consortia made up of gov, biz, and non-profits, and business entities. Here's a list of some of the best resources (and an indication of how far-ranging the sources of this information are).

The US government's stats aren't out for 2005 yet, but for years before that the best place to start is:
http://stats.bls.gov/cex/home.htm
- look under the "Economic News Releases"

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago does all kinds of consumer spending research and creates forecasts. One such document in late 2005 will give you an idea of what kind of info you can get on their site:
http://www.chicagofed.org/news_and_conferences/conferences_and_events/files/2005_eos_swonk.pdf

Here's a good page on who spends what money on what things:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/lets/0902ltb.html

You can look at "Expenditures on Children by Families"
http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/using2.html

Other:
1) Do a search in google/yahoo/ask.com on "consumer spending" (and DO use those quote marks)
2) Do that same search, but put in the name of the specific "thing" after the first phrase (electronics, for instance, will get you links to ZDNet pages)
3) Go to your local university library where they have a marketing/business program. Ask a business librarian where to get this information in the library. There are GREAT paper resources for this kind of question.
4) Find that library online (or your local public library) and figure out if you can ask this question either by phone or by email. There are proprietary (and expensive) databases that have this information that you may be able to get access to if you have a library card.

Answer 2

www.dol.gov

you will find many statistics