This data analysis portfolio piece will present a preliminary data investigation, showing how a typical data exploration starts from initial data collection to identifying preliminary trends and discussing them. In this analysis, we pull information from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) databases that includes economic statistics on inflation, prices, unemployment, and pay & benefits. Specifically, in this piece, we explore the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the years and initialize an investigation into interesting trends that occur around the COVID-19 pandemic.