Industry Producer Price Indexes As oil prices declined—falling more than 50% from June 2014 to January 2015, before increasing slightly in spring 2015—energy production companies focused efforts on increasing operating efficiencies. While production, rig counts , and employment statistics are good indicators of the expansion or contraction of the oil and natural gas industry, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index (PPI) tracks the rates oil and natural gas service firms are receiving for goods and services used in producing oil and natural gas. Changes in the PPI can be used to examine how prices charged by firms throughout the oil and natural gas industry respond to fluctuations in commodity prices. The magnitude of PPI declines by industrial classification compared with the downturn in oil prices reflects the idea that firms most directly exposed to […]