U.S. Economy
Weekly Economic Index
The Weekly Economic Index (WEI) provides a signal of the state of the U.S. economy based on data available at a daily or weekly frequency. It represents the common component of 10 different daily and weekly series covering consumer behavior, the labor market and production. It is updated Thursday at or shortly after 10:30 a.m. CT, using data available up to 8 a.m. CT.
September 21, 2023: Update
- The WEI is currently 2.40 percent, scaled to four-quarter GDP growth, for the week ended September 16 and 1.62 percent for September 9; for reference, the WEI stood at 1.30 percent for the week ended February 29, 2020.
- The increase in the WEI for the week of September 16 (relative to the final estimate for the week of September 9) is due to rises in steel production, tax withholding, consumer confidence, fuel sales, and railroad traffic and a decrease in initial unemployment insurance claims, which more than offset a fall in retail sales. Electricity output remained the same. The WEI for the week of September 9 was revised downward despite a decline in continuing unemployment insurance claims and an increase in the staffing index.
NOTES: When federal holidays occur on a publishing date or change the release schedule for the underlying data, the report is delayed by 24 hours. Data are updated at Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
WEI Authors
The WEI was developed by Daniel J. Lewis, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Karel Mertens, senior economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; and James H. Stock, professor of economics at Harvard University.