Macroeconomics

Monster Employment Index The Monster Employment Index was a monthly analysis of online job demand conducted by Monster Worldwide, running from October 2003 to December 2012.[1] Based on a monthly review of millions of opportunities culled from a large selection of corporate career sites and job boards, including Monster, the Index presented a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity in the United States, Canada and Europe. Because recruitment typically precedes actual hiring by a month or two, the Monster Employment Index was considered a labor market leading indicator and a rough gauge of the overall economy. The U.S. Monster Employment Index was released the day prior to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Situation while the Monster Employment Index Europe was published on the second Tuesday of each month, with individual reports for the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Belgium. The Monster Employment Index Canada was released quarterly.

Economics For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of economics. Economics is the social science that studies the behavior of individuals, households, and organizations (called economic actors, players, or agents), when they manage or use scarce resources, which have alternative uses, to achieve desired ends. Agents are assumed to act rationally, have multiple desirable ends in sight, limited resources to obtain these ends, a set of stable preferences, a definite overall guiding objective, and the capability of making a choice. The traditional concern of economics is to gain an understanding of the processes that govern the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in an exchange economy.[3] An agent may have purposes or ends, such as reducing or protecting individuals from crime, on which he or she wants to spend resources. Definitions There are a variety of modern definitions of economics. J. Economics is a study of man in the ordinary business of life. Microeconomics

Construction price and cost indices The quarterly Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) construction price and cost indices (PCIs) are produced for use in estimating, cost checking and fee negotiation on public sector construction works. The PCIs are published as an online service by Aecom under contract to BIS. The publication provides comprehensive public sector construction price and cost information in Great Britain, including the following indices: tender price index of public sector building non-housing, social housing, and road construction resource cost indices for buildings, roads, infrastructure and building maintenance output price indices for construction sectors output price indices for direct labour location and function studies The UK Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Microeconomics This is in contrast to macroeconomics, which involves the "sum total of economic activity, dealing with the issues of growth, inflation, and unemployment."[2] Microeconomics also deals with the effects of national economic policies (such as changing taxation levels) on the aforementioned aspects of the economy.[4] Particularly in the wake of the Lucas critique, much of modern macroeconomic theory has been built upon 'microfoundations'—i.e. based upon basic assumptions about micro-level behavior. Assumptions and definitions[edit] Microeconomic theory progresses by defining a competitive budget set which is a subset of the consumption set. The utility maximization problem is the heart of consumer theory. The utility maximization problem is a simple constrained optimization problem in which an individual seeks to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint. The theory of supply and demand usually assumes that markets are perfectly competitive. Microeconomic topics[edit] Monopoly[edit]

Consumer price index A graph of the US CPI from 1913 to 2013 (in blue), and its percentage annual change (in red) A consumer price index (CPI) measures changes in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The CPI is a statistical estimate constructed using the prices of a sample of representative items whose prices are collected periodically. Sub-indexes and sub-sub-indexes are computed for different categories and sub-categories of goods and services, being combined to produce the overall index with weights reflecting their shares in the total of the consumer expenditures covered by the index. It is one of several price indices calculated by most national statistical agencies. The annual percentage change in a CPI is used as a measure of inflation. Introduction[edit] Ideally, the weights would relate to the composition of expenditure during the time between the price-reference month and the current month. The coverage of the index may be limited. or . where the

Supply and demand The price P of a product is determined by a balance between production at each price (supply S) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand D). The diagram shows a positive shift in demand from D1 to D2, resulting in an increase in price (P) and quantity sold (Q) of the product. If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price. Graphical representation of supply and demand[edit] Supply schedule[edit] The determinants of supply are: Demand schedule[edit]

Producer price index A Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average changes in prices received by domestic producers for their output. It is one of several price indices. Its importance is being undermined by the steady decline in manufactured goods as a share of spending.[1] Related measures[edit] A number of countries that now report a Producer Price Index previously reported a Wholesale Price Index. PPIs around the world[edit] United States[edit] In the US, the PPI was known as the Wholesale Price Index, or WPI, up to 1978. India[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ The Economist, Volume 387, May 31 - June 6, 2009, page 109Jump up ^ BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 14 Producer Prices, Background (found online at: up ^ Senate Committee on Finance, Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, Senate Report No. 1394, “The Aldrich Report,” Part I, 52nd Congress, 2d sess., March 3, 1893; and U.S. External links[edit]

Gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as "an aggregate measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident, institutional units engaged in production (plus any taxes, and minus any subsidies, on products not included in the value of their outputs)."[2] GDP estimates are commonly used to measure the economic performance of a whole country or region, but can also measure the relative contribution of an industry sector. This is possible because GDP is a measure of 'value added' rather than sales; it adds each firm's value added (the value of its output minus the value of goods that are used up in producing it). The more familiar use of GDP estimates is to calculate the growth of the economy from year to year (and recently from quarter to quarter). History[edit] The history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. Determining GDP[edit]

Interest rate An interest rate is the rate at which interest is paid by borrowers (debtors) for the use of money that they borrow from lenders (creditors). Specifically, the interest rate is a percentage of principal paid a certain number of times per period for all periods during the total term of the loan or credit. Interest rates are normally expressed as a percentage of the principal for a period of one year, sometimes they are expressed for different periods like for a month or a day. Different interest rates exist parallelly for the same or comparable time periods, depending on the default probability of the borrower, the residual term, the payback currency, and many more determinants of a loan or credit. For example, a company borrows capital from a bank to buy new assets for its business, and in return the lender receives rights on the new assets as collateral and interest at a predetermined interest rate for deferring the use of funds and instead lending it to the borrower. is widely used.

How is Unemployment Defined? - Video Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work. The most frequently cited measure of unemployment is the unemployment rate. This is the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of people in the labor force. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy. There are three types of unemployment frequently referenced in economics, 1. ·2. ·3. The natural rate of unemployment is that amount of unemployment that occurs naturally due to imperfect information and job shopping.

Macroeconomics Macroeconomics studies the performance of an economy as a whole. While microeconomics focuses on the decisions, spending and performance of individuals or single businesses, macroeconomics focuses on aggregate expenditure and consumption of a nation or region, the amount saved and spent by all households, the productiveness of a country’s labor force, how actions of a government and central bank stimulate the overall economy, and more. Common macroeconomic measurements include Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total amount of goods produced by an economy; unemployment, which is the percentage of people in the economy that are not working; and inflation, the rate at which prices are rising. Macroeconomists develop models to explain the relationship of these factors to the overall economy, and at what magnitude each factor can affect the economic environment as a whole.