0 something that shows what a situation has been like in previous weeks, months, etc., rather than showing what it is like now or will be like in the future:
The unemployment rate is a lagging indicator of the economy's overall performance.
1 a measure of economic activity that relates to events or developments in the past, not to changes that have taken place since those events or developments:
Unemployment is a lagging indicator, he said, meaning that the circumstances that caused the August jump in joblessness actually occurred weeks or months earlier.
He said bankruptcy cases are a lagging indicator for the economy - which means if a recession began early this year, the caseload will begin to jump in the fall and early next year.
Some of the benchmarks are useful in predicting future trends, while others are lagging indicators.
Attitudes toward first ladies are "a lagging indicator about where women are in the country," says historian Lewis Gould.
