U.S. economic indicators explained

Every official economic indicator on this site, explained in plain English: what it measures, how it is collected, how to read it, and what it leaves out.

• 10-year Treasury yield — What investors earn to lend money to the U.S. government for ten years — the benchmark long-term interest rate.
• 30-year fixed mortgage rate — The going rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.
• Consumer Price Index (all urban consumers, all items) — The consumer price level — an index of what a fixed basket of household purchases costs. Inflation is how fast it changes, not the number itself.
• Effective federal funds rate — The overnight interest rate banks charge each other for reserves — the Federal Reserve’s main policy lever, not the President’s.
• Federal debt as a percent of GDP — Federal debt measured against the size of the economy that has to carry it.
• Federal debt: total public debt — The total amount the federal government owes, in the dollars of the day.
• Federal government current expenditures — What the federal government spends, in the dollars of the day.
• Federal surplus or deficit as a percent of GDP — How much more the federal government spent than it took in over a fiscal year, as a share of the economy. Negative is a deficit; positive is a surplus.
• Housing starts — How many new homes broke ground, at an annual rate.
• Industrial production index — Real output of factories, mines, and utilities — the physical, goods-producing part of the economy.
• Labor force participation rate — The share of the adult population that is either working or looking for work — how many people are in the job market at all.
• Net exports of goods and services — Exports minus imports of goods and services. A negative number is a trade deficit.
• Nonfarm payroll employment — The number of jobs on employer payrolls outside farming — the standard jobs count.
• Personal saving rate — The share of after-tax income households do not spend.
• Real GDP per capita — Real GDP divided by the population: output per person, inflation adjusted.
• Real gross domestic product — The total output of the U.S. economy, with inflation taken out — the broadest single measure of economic activity.
• Real median household income — What the household in the exact middle of the income distribution received in a year, after inflation.
• Real median weekly earnings — What the worker in the exact middle of the full-time pay distribution takes home in a week, after inflation.
• Retail gasoline price, regular — The national average pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline, taxes included.
• Unemployment rate — The share of people who want a job and are looking for one but do not have one — the headline gauge of labor-market slack.