What’s In the Report

The CHICAGO Report:
The monthly report of key indicators of USA economic activities

• Raw and Seasonally Adjusted Data:
  eleven economic indicators, including the Chicago Business Barometer (the "Chicago PMI") 
• Individual graphs:
  gray bars indicate recessions
• Arrows:
  direction of 3 month moving averages
• From the Source (an occasional feature):
  selected comments from members of the survey panel
• Statistical Summary:
  last year
  2000 - last year
  1970 - last year

Your subscription gives you access to this market-moving data 3 minutes before public release.

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Survey methodology

The Chicago Report, which delivers results of the ISM-Chicago Business Survey, provides a proven ‘first look’ at business, government and NGO economic activity in the USA. Released monthly, generally on the last working day, the data characterizes expanding or contracting USA economic activity.

The survey panel is focused on purchasing / supply chain management professionals, primarily drawn from the membership of the Institute for Supply Management - Chicago. The survey of Business Activities and Business Policy includes global non-manufacturing as well as manufacturing activities of the responding companies.

The Chicago Report data consists of the composite Chicago Business Barometer (commonly called the "Chicago PMI") and seven Business Activity series (characterized as +, same, –, and including raw and seasonally adjusted indexes):

• Production
• New Orders
• Order Backlog
• Employment
• Inventories
• Prices Paid
• Supplier Deliveries

Since the early 70’s, the Buying Policy series provide a monthly measure of lead times for three major categories of products. Average days required to source Production Materiels, MRO Supplies, and Capital Equipment provide unique insight into economic activity:

• Production Materiels
• MRO Supplies
• Capital Equipment

Each series represents the level of activity (for the proportion of the survey responding) compared to the prior month. As such, this survey provides measure of the pervasiveness of changes in economic activity, but does not provide an estimate of the magnitude of either advances or declines. The composite Business Barometer provides an overall gauge of business activity.

The Chicago Business Barometer is computed from five weighted raw indexes (see series and weights below) and then seasonally adjusted to support month-to-month comparisons:

Production New Orders Order Backlog Employment Supplier Deliveries

0.25 0.35 0.15 0.10 0.15

Survey Results Released to the Public
8:45am Central Time, USA.

2010
31 August (Tuesday)
30 September (Thursday)

29 October (Friday)
30 November (Tuesday)
30 December (Thursday)