The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, created in 1947, is an independent agency whose mission is to preserve and promote labor-management peace and cooperation. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with two regional offices and more than 70 field offices, the agency provides mediation and conflict resolution services to industry, government agencies and communities.

National CPI data (U.S. city averages) are released each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) about 2 weeks after the reference period—the CPI for January is released in mid-February, for example. Often neglected in the attention to the overall national inflation rate, however, is that the CPI publishes thousands of other price indexes each month. This fact sheet describes the available CPI data series and discusses some of the unique characteristics that should be noted when using or requesting CPI indexes.