Inflation Continued to Climb in November, Increasing 2.7% Over the Past Twelve Months

Recent reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveal that inflation continued to climb in November.

As a result of this, the BLS explained separately that real average hourly earnings for all employees remained unchanged from October to November.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) — widely recognized as a critical indicator of inflation — rose .3 percent in November, contributing to a 2.7 percent increase over this same time last year.

This represents an increase over the .2 percent by which the CPI has risen in each of the past four months.

Although current inflation rates are still well-below the 40-year high of 8.9 percent experienced in June of 2022, they are still notably above the Federal Reserve’s annual 2 percent target.

One of the biggest contributors to this month’s increase is housing — which is weighted to be about one-third of the CPI calculation — accounting for about 40 percent of the total increase.

Food costs were shown to have increased last month, rising .4 percent for food at home and .5 percent for food away from home.

The cost of energy increased .2 percent in November after been unchanged in October.

Over the past year, all consumer items — excluding food and energy — were found to have risen 3.3 percent.

The year-over-year increase for the food index was 2.4 percent, while the energy index actually decreased by 3.2 percent during this same period.

The decrease in energy-related inflation appears to be primarily driven by 19.5 percent drop in inflation for fuel oil over the past twelve months.

Experiencing the largest year-over-year inflation increases were the service industry, which saw an increase of 4.6 percent overall. The subcategory of transportation services saw the largest increase at 7.1 percent.

This was followed by shelter at 4.7 percent, a figure resulting from largely-consistent increases over the course of 2024, rising between .2 percent and .5 percent each month.

New and used vehicles were some of the only other categories to see their inflation rate decrease over the past year, dropping by .7 and 3.4 percent respectively.

Click Here for More Information from the BLS on the CPI

According to an August Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project conducted by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Survey Center, Fifty-eight percent of Mainers reported struggling either somewhat or a lot to afford basic necessities over the past year.

In addition to this, nearly half of Mainers have reported that their household is in a worse financial condition compared to this time last year — including 62 percent of Independents and 86 percent of Republicans.

[RELATED: Nearly 60% of Mainers Are Struggling to Afford Basic Necessities — Pine Tree State Poll]

The same was said, however, by just 15 percent of Maine Democrats, while 53 percent said they were “about the same.”

Nearly one-third of Democrats indicated that they were better off than last year, compared to just 5 percent of Independents and 4 percent of Republicans.