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Tech Pulse

The Tech Pulse Index is an index of coincident indicators of activity in the U.S. information technology sector. It can be interpreted as a summary statistic that
tracks the health of the tech sector in a timely manner. The indicators used to compute the index are investment in IT goods, consumption of personal computers
and software, employment in the IT sector, as well as industrial production of and shipments by the technology sector. The index extracts the common trend that
drives these series.

Current Release
Deviation of growth rate from historical average
75

50

Percent

25

0

-25

-50

-75
1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

1-month growth rate (annualized)

2000

2005

2010

2015

12-month growth rate

Summary
In December 2016 the Tech Pulse Index grew at an annualized rate of 7.2%, compared to its 11.8% historical average. The Tech Pulse Index grew 4.2% over the
past 12 months.
Tech Pulse Index and Underlying Indicators
12 month
growth rate
Indicator

latest

Monthly growth rates,
annualized
Nov-16

Dec-16

Tech Pulse

4.2%

6.9%

Oct-16

6.6%

7.2%

Industrial Production

5.5%

10.2%

1.4%

Shipments

3.6%

11.8%

2.7%

Employment

1.1%

-0.7%

-0.1%

PCE

17.6%

39.1%

24.3%

PCE deflator

-8.6%

-11.9%

-11.9%

0.8%

4 quarter
growth rate

Quarterly growth rates,
annualized

latest

2016Q2 2016Q3 2016Q4

Private fixed investment (PFI) -1.9%

-13.1%

16.2%

PFI deflator

1.1%

-2.4%

-0.8%

Announcements
• The econometric model used to construct the Tech Pulse index is re-estimated every month. Consequently, every month the whole historical time-series of
the index is revised.
• The econometric specification of the model underlying the index as well as the source data have changed substantially compared to the versions of the index
released before August 2008. Therefore, the current version of the Tech Pulse index is not directly comparable to previous versions of the index published
before December 2008.