What are the most important things to know about macroeconomics?

The best answer to most macroeconomic questions is "it depends". In this case, it depends on who you are and what part of the economy concerns you. Macroeconomics provides many different data sets that have stronger meanings to different types of people. The standard macroeconomic indicators are:

• Gross Domestic Product. This measures how large an economy is and its growth rate measures how much it has grown in nominal terms over a period of time.
• Inflation. This is a measure of the price change in an economy over a given period of time.
• Unemployment rate. This is a measure of the proportion of the labor force that is unemployed during a certain period of time, usually monthly.

There are other indicators that you might be interested in depending on your role in the economy, such as housing starts, bond yields, employment changes and wages.