From the course: Economic Indicators

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Industrial production

Industrial production

From the course: Economic Indicators

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Industrial production

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- Have you ever had someone call you industrious? It means that you're hardworking. And if you want to know if the U.S. economy is working hard, you should be watching industrial production data. It's a measure of how much manufacturing, mining, and utilities are producing in the U.S. economy. The data is produced by the Federal Reserve and most analysts and media personalities focus on monthly percent changes. But the really important part of the industrial production data is the trend in long-term levels of total industrial activity. Industrial production is measured across a few key product groups, including consumer goods, durable goods like autos, as well as non-durables like clothing, business equipment like manufacturing machinery and IT equipment, construction, and materials, like textiles, paper, chemicals and energy. Because the U.S. economy usually grows and expands, industrial production is almost always growing year over year. In fact, if we look back at data through…

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