Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index

The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index™ (PCI) is a real-time measure of the flow of goods to US factories, retailers, and consumers. April’s results represent the seventeenth consecutive month of year-over-year improvement in the index, up 3.5 percent. A little over a year after its release, the index continues to receive increasingly frequent and widespread coverage in national media. In this CRA Insights, we describe some of the work by CRA and others that led to the creation of the PCI as well as the importance of the index as a strong indicator of the progress of the US economy’s recovery.