Everything's an economic indicator these days — from offbeat numbers on restaurant reservations and visits to the Statue of Liberty to more standard info on job listings.

Why it matters: Companies and investors are scrambling for alternatives to the data put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which halted almost all releases in the government shutdown. • Businesses use the numbers to make big decisions about hiring, firing, prices, spending — even figuring out what goods to sell to consumers. • Policymakers use government data to make big decisions as well: from unemployment insurance to nutritional assistance and raises for Social Security recipients.

Zoom in: A few days after the shutdown started, Apollo Global Management put out a 75-page pdf stuffed with charts tracking all k

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