Armchair economists, rejoice.
The Department of Labor and Workforce Development is making it easier to track Alaska's recession with a monthly publication that gathers key economic data all in one place, so you don't have to.
The latest issue of Alaska Economic Trends, available through the department's website, includes statistics on job growth, unemployment, foreclosures, wages and other key indicators, and compares today's numbers with historical trends.
Several professional economists recently said the state's current recession is "moderate" as it approaches the two-year mark. Now you can see how they arrived at that conclusion.
"There's lots of interest in the data when the economy isn't as strong in general," said state labor economist Dan Robinson. "I like the idea of somebody being able to go to one place and get a look at most of the measures we find useful as we try to figure out when the recession is over and how it compares to previous periods in our history."
The number of jobs is among the most reliable measures of economic health, but there's no single indicator that says the economy is either great or terrible, Robinson said.
In June 2017, jobs were down 1.7 percent from the same month the previous year. Alaska's 10-year average for job growth is 0.4 percent. Job losses during the low point of Alaska's largest recession in the 1980s were 7.5 percent.