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On Friday , the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) inform the country that the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped to 8.6 % . This was good news as the national unemployment pace had been hover around 9 % for quite a spell .
The BLS is in charge of putting together some rather creative thinker - boggle statistics . In fiat to calculate the unemployment charge per unit the BLS surveys more than 100.000 business and over 400,000 worksites . And they do this every month . When they ’re not busy with unemployment , they spend their gratis time calculating the national inflation rate and bird watch .
Unemployment and inflation , however , are only two figures that we can wait at to tell apart us how the economy is faring . Over the year , economic expert and non - economists have come up with small ways to either judge the present tense or predict the hereafter . Here ’s a sample distribution of some of the more interesting indicant .
1. The Underwear Index
The Men ’s Underwear Index ( MUI ) was in the beginning developed by Alan Greenspan . According to this indicator , if Isle of Man are not quite as well off , they ’re less potential to put back worn out underwear , and more likely to wear it out all before replacing it . As bear , hands ’s tightie - whitie sales have been down throughout the recession , but they ’ve recently shown an uptick . So , whether you ’re a boxer or abbreviated adult male , things might be looking up .
2. The Waffle House Indicator
Part economical index , part disaster recovery indicator , the Waffle House Indicator is a way to see how down on its luck , or completely out of direction , a metropolis or town is . Open 24 hours a Clarence Day , 365 days a year , the Waffle House is a round-eyed gauge with which to measure the economic health of a community of interests . fundamentally , if the ' House is close , something jolly massive is going down . Craig Fuguate at FEMA has in reality come up with a color - coded organisation to evalute the Waffle House - connect damage in a given country :
" Green means the eating place is serving a full menu , a sign that damage in an surface area is modified and the lights are on . Yellow signify a limited fare , indicating power from a source , at good , and low food supply . Red think the restaurant is closed , a star sign of austere equipment casualty in the area or unsafe conditions . "
3. The Marine Index
There are two shipway to use our nation ’s elect fighting force to judge our current thriftiness . One is by wait at enlisting statistics . Currently , the Marines have a pretty unshakable flow of enlistee make out through the doors , and if recruitment is up , typically the economy is down . If we look at the armed force in strictly an economic means , then the job they offer are typically more unsafe than average , lower pay than average , and more restrictive than modal . These jobs , however , bring with them more job security than average , and have more geographic mobility . Therefore , if these positions are nearly full , it shows that the median citizen is uncoerced to take risk of infection to secure a job .
The other way we can habituate the Marines to recite how we ’re doing is to wait at their television ads . If their recruitment quotas are contact , then they can afford to make their ads less inviting , tougher , and more daunting . So , if you ’re watching Monday Night Football and you see an advertising with some feller go through grueling torture to be a Marine , then odds are , the economic system still is n’t flying high up .
equate it to this commercial posted earlier this year :
4. The Hot Waitress Index
New York Magazinehas report on a less concrete index , but one that they promise is just as reliable : theHot Waitress Index . The hypothesis goes that when clock time are in effect , people in the “ oecumenical attraction business ” ( to mongrelize a phrase fromParty Down ) find many jobs – modeling , marketing , partying , acting – that put their dish to habituate . When the economy falls , however , the last resort of the beautiful is to wait . How one would ever quantify this index is beyond me . I opine it ’s one of those gut - feel thing . Or maybe economical indicators are in the eye of the perceiver . * * * Are there any quirky measures of the saving ’s health that you rely on ? Feel innocent to coin your own right here .
