Jobs - Prices - Consumer - Debt - Growth - Policy
Economy Health
A monthly read on whether the real economy is supportive, mixed or deteriorating.
Economic backdrop
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A dashboard reading explains the numbers; cited web research adds current real-world context.
Jobs and income
Household earning power
Unemployment rate
A rise in unemployment can reduce household income and spending. It is on its own scale so even modest changes remain visible.
Payroll growth
The three-month average smooths noisy monthly hiring and shows the direction of labour demand.
Initial jobless claims
Weekly claims can provide an earlier indication of layoffs than the monthly employment report.
Income and price stability
Nominal wage growth only improves purchasing power when it beats inflation. The real-wage line is the simple gap between pay growth and CPI.
Consumer demand
Spending and confidence
Spending growth
Retail sales and real consumption are both growth rates, making a direct comparison meaningful without a second axis.
Consumer sentiment
Confidence can affect willingness to spend. It is shown separately from spending growth so neither series is flattened.
What consumers are buying
Durables are generally easier to delay than everyday nondurable goods. This is a useful demand-composition proxy, not a strict discretionary-versus-necessities split.
Household finance
Debt burden and repayment stress
Debt-service burden
Required debt payments as a share of income are more informative than debt levels alone. FRED publishes these ratios quarterly; the latest reading is held until the next release, not estimated month by month.
Credit-card debt
The outstanding balance shows the scale and direction of revolving consumer debt, not whether borrowers can repay it.
Loan delinquencies
Late-payment rates show whether repayment stress is beginning to emerge across credit cards, consumer loans and mortgages.
Economic activity
Growth and policy
Real GDP growth
GDP is reported quarterly. A dedicated chart keeps its smaller growth rate visible rather than flattening it against survey indexes.
Business activity surveys
Values above 50 generally indicate expansion; values below 50 indicate contraction. Manufacturing and services are comparable survey indexes.
Policy support
Interest rates affect loans, mortgages and company financing. Cooling inflation can give central banks more room to ease pressure.