The Garden State Activity Index is our broad measure of monthly economic activity in the state of New Jersey. The index incorporates information from three sources: the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s coincident index, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s coincident index and the Philadelphia Fed’s South Jersey Business Survey.

We use principal components analysis to calculate the monthly activity index. This statistical technique systemically constructs weighted averages of the three Fed indicators. The index allows us to more accurately measure New Jersey’s current economic health.