Business Owners & Analysts
Forecasting, benchmarking, and market-sizing tools for business decisions.
How to use this page
Use Labor Market and Sentiment & Forecasting to gauge hiring conditions and near-term demand, and Housing & Real Estate or Trade & International if your business is exposed to those sectors. Many of these tools are built for professional analysts, so look at the pricing badge — some offer a useful free tier, others require a subscription for the data cuts you'll actually need.
Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index
Monthly gauge of US household confidence in the economy. Headline index is free via press release; full historical/detailed data series require a paid subscription.
FreemiumInvesting.com Economic Calendar
Widely used economic release calendar with historical surprise data.
FreeISM Manufacturing PMI
Widely watched monthly index of US manufacturing activity.
FreemiumNFIB Small Business Optimism Index
Monthly survey tracking small business sentiment and hiring plans.
Free