Economics
Tips for Spotting a U.S. Recession Before It Becomes Official
- Yield curve, credit conditions can provide early warnings
- Some manufacturing and employment data can also prove useful
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As the U.S. nears a record-long expansion in July, the conversation is increasingly turning to when it will all end.
Recessions are inherently hard to spot. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, a panel whose determinations of when expansions begin and end are accepted as official, generally waits about a year to make a call. By the time a sustained downturn is evident in data like payrolls or gross domestic product, a contraction may have already begun.