# FRED API: Get economic indicator > Gets a public FRED economic series by plain name or series ID, with its observations, latest value and source details. Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by FRED. - Page: https://fous.com/methods/fred.stlouisfed.org/get-economic-indicator - Method: `fred.stlouisfed.org/get_economic_indicator`, version 1 - Website: fred.stlouisfed.org - Returns: indicator title, units, frequency, seasonal adjustment, source agency, latest value and date, observations - Effect: read (it gets data and changes nothing) - Sign-in: none needed - Cost: 1 credit per completed run (1ยข with pay as you go); failed runs are free - Verified: Nov 2, 2026 ## Inputs | Field | Type | Required | In the run below | Description | |---|---|---|---|---| | `change` | string | no | | Value transformation, for example percent_change_from_year_ago; defaults to none. One of "none", "percent_change_from_year_ago". Default "none". | | `end_date` | string | no | | Last observation date in YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2026-09-28. Defaults to today. | | `indicator` | string | yes | `"US unemployment rate"` | Economic figure in plain words or a FRED series ID, for example US unemployment rate or UNRATE. | | `start_date` | string | no | | First observation date in YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2021-01-01. Defaults to five years ago. | ## Output From a run on Oct 23, 2026, shortened. Its input: ```json { "indicator": "US unemployment rate" } ``` Its output: ```json { "units": "Percent", "values": [ { "date": "2021-11-01", "value": 4.1 }, { "date": "2021-12-01", "value": 3.9 }, { "date": "2022-01-01", "value": 4 } ], "frequency": "Monthly", "page_link": "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE", "series_id": "UNRATE", "latest_date": "2026-09-01", "latest_value": 4.2, "source_agency": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "indicator_title": "Unemployment Rate", "seasonally_adjusted": true } ``` ## Run it From code, with a Fous API key in `FOUS_API_KEY`; the answer's `data` holds the output: ```bash curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"method":"fred.stlouisfed.org/get_economic_indicator","input":{"indicator":"US unemployment rate"}}' ``` From an AI agent connected to the Fous MCP server: its `run` with the same method and input. To connect one, give it `set up https://fous.com/SKILL.md`. ## Ask your agent - What is the latest US unemployment rate and how has it trended since 2021? - Show me CPI inflation year over year percent change from 2019 to today - Get the monthly federal funds effective rate observations for the last three years - I need GDP quarterly values with source agency and seasonal adjustment details for 2022 onward - Pull the 10-year Treasury yield series from FRED with units and frequency for 2020-01-01 through 2024-12-31 ## Input schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "indicator" ], "properties": { "change": { "enum": [ "none", "percent_change_from_year_ago" ], "type": "string", "default": "none", "description": "Value transformation, for example percent_change_from_year_ago; defaults to none." }, "end_date": { "type": "string", "description": "Last observation date in YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2026-09-28. Defaults to today." }, "indicator": { "type": "string", "description": "Economic figure in plain words or a FRED series ID, for example US unemployment rate or UNRATE." }, "start_date": { "type": "string", "description": "First observation date in YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2021-01-01. Defaults to five years ago." } } } ``` ## Output schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "indicator_title", "units", "frequency", "seasonally_adjusted", "source_agency", "latest_value", "latest_date", "page_link", "values", "series_id" ], "properties": { "units": { "type": "string", "description": "Units of the returned values, in words." }, "values": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "date", "value" ], "properties": { "date": { "type": "string", "format": "date" }, "value": { "type": [ "number", "null" ] } }, "additionalProperties": false }, "description": "Observations in the requested period, oldest first." }, "frequency": { "type": "string", "description": "How often new observations occur." }, "page_link": { "type": "string", "description": "FRED page for this indicator." }, "series_id": { "type": "string", "description": "FRED series identifier.", "x-fous-developer": true }, "latest_date": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "format": "date", "description": "Date of the latest available value in the requested period." }, "latest_value": { "type": [ "number", "null" ], "description": "Most recent available value in the requested period." }, "source_agency": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "description": "Organization that supplies the series." }, "indicator_title": { "type": "string", "description": "Name of the economic indicator." }, "seasonally_adjusted": { "type": "boolean", "description": "Whether the series is seasonally adjusted." } }, "additionalProperties": false } ``` ## See more - [FRED API: Search economic series](https://fous.com/methods/fred.stlouisfed.org/search-indicators.md): Searches FRED economic series by topic, ordered by popularity, and returns each series' coverage dates, units, frequency and last update. FRED does not publish a popularity score on these pages, so it is null. - [Trading Economics API: Get country economic overview](https://fous.com/methods/tradingeconomics.com/get-country-overview.md): Returns seven key economic indicators for a country from its public Trading Economics overview: GDP growth rate, inflation rate, interest rate, unemployment rate, government debt to GDP, currency and stock market. Indicators absent from the overview are null; the US dollar index is not reported as a USD exchange rate. - [IMF API: Get economic forecast](https://fous.com/methods/imf.org/get-economic-forecast.md): Gets World Economic Outlook figures for a country or region by year, labelled as actual or forecast. Measures the IMF does not publish for a year are null. - [Trading Economics API: List countries by indicator](https://fous.com/methods/tradingeconomics.com/list-countries-by-indicator.md): Compares the latest reported value of an economic indicator across countries in a region, highest first. World includes all listed countries; Australia uses the Oceania region. - [Freddie Mac API: Get mortgage rates](https://fous.com/methods/freddiemac.com/get-mortgage-rates.md): Returns Freddie Mac's U.S. 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgage rates for the latest survey or a chosen date, with weekly and year-ago changes, and optionally a weekly history for a date range. - [IMF API: List country rankings](https://fous.com/methods/imf.org/list-country-rankings.md): Ranks countries by a World Economic Outlook indicator for a chosen year, excluding regional and group totals and countries without a value. - [Macrotrends API: Get long-term price history](https://fous.com/methods/macrotrends.net/get-long-term-price-history.md): Gets decades of yearly commodity or stock-index price history from Macrotrends: yearly average, open, high, low, close, annual change and inflation-adjusted value for gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, copper, Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The current year may be incomplete. - [Our World in Data API: Get statistic](https://fous.com/methods/ourworldindata.org/get-statistic.md): Finds the Our World in Data chart that best matches a statistic and returns its country-by-year numeric values, definition and source. - [All FRED methods](https://fous.com/methods/stlouisfed.org.md)