HANDBOOK OF KEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Rogers, an analyst and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, has written a much-needed guide to economic indicators. Rogers goes into great detail explaining the frequency of various indicators, the methodologies used, the weighting factors, and the formulas used for the calculations. The bases for many indicators have been revised recently, and many more will be revised in the coming years. Rogers provides comparative notes between the old and new indicators to help the researcher formulate a consistent series. Topics covered by the book include employment, personal income, retail sales, auto sales, the consumer price index and producer price index, industrial production, manufacturers orders, inventories, international trade, construction, gross domestic product, and forecasts and composite indexes. This book should serve as a companion to the Labor Department's Handbook of Methods, which outlines and explains the methodology used in labor statistics.