“Zero percent inflation? Clearly some people don’t buy their own groceries!”
The real reason they don’t count food, energy, taxes, insurance or medical costs is that a substantial amount of what the government pays out is, by law, supposed to be inflation adjusted. If they made those adjustments then the very act of making them would cause a further increase in inflation. This creates a positive feedback loop and would crater the dollar’s value in short order. So, they cook the numbers.
I have a better explanation. That lazy, ignorant, stupid, mouthy affirmative action "Fuhrer" we have now has ordered the FedGov to deliberately lie about the statistics because his disastrous policies have produced such horrible numbers, they have to lie to help the Propaganda agents in the Media hide the fact that his policies are so disastrous.
Chicago Mafia crap. That's all the FedGov inflation/employment numbers are any more.