What are some of the statistics sociologists and economists look at to see if the economy is improving or d?

Question

improving or declining???

Answer 1

How is prices rising a good thing?  Inflation is not good in any way.  I think that real GDP...i.e., adjusted for inflation is the stat that economist use most.  The GDP deflator and the CPI show the inflation rate.  Unemployment is a good stat because labor is one of the scarce factors of production.  You can't over look interest rates which provide the incentive for investment either.  Most importantly, economist look at REAL variables, not nominal variables.

Answer 2

They look mostly at GDP and price level, but as well they also look at unemployment. If the GDP goes up, that is a good thing. If the price level goes up then that could be good or bad depending on how much it goes up, a little (2%) is good and a lot is bad. And if unemploymeny goes up it can mean that more people are losing jobs, or that more people have entered the labor force, which is a good thing.