I have two main sources that I utilize to gauge overall economic activity and private employment. In regard to to economic activity, I monitor closely the Chicago Fed National Activity Index, which is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators. The 85 economic indicators that are included in the index are drawn from four broad categories of data: production and income; employment, unemployment, and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders, and inventories. Each of these data series measures some aspect of overall macroeconomic activity.
For private sector employment, I use the ADP National Employment Report. It is a measure of private sector employment derived from an anonymous subset of approximately 500,000 of its U.S. business clients. This is the true measure of job creation within the private sector. Why is this of importance? These private jobs is what grows the economy, not government created job. The problem that I have with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is that I don't consider them to be totally objective in reporting monthly employment numbers.
Therefore, if you really want to know the "truth" in regard to the economy and the private sector employment picture, check out those two sites. In other words, become your own economist.
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