Finding the important economic indicators

You've got a lot of numbers you track in your day-to-day business life: sales, profits, capital expenses, capacity utilization, employee costs …

So understanding the economic jargon and statistics of the larger business world can seem a little overwhelming. Where do you start? What data is important?

In this short video, Economics Editor Bill Wood breaks down some of the numbers worth following, and why.

And to save you a little more time, here's some links to the reports he said are worth watching:

* Industrial production and capacity utilization.

* Housing starts.

* Consumer spending.