Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Number of employees: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - NY FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Empire State Manufacturing Survey (NY FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about NY-based manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -1.2 in September 2025, compared to 4.4 in the previous month.
Sample. In the montly series shown in the figure, there are 291 records in total. The span of time covered by the series is from July 2001 to September 2025.
History. Here's a peek at a few descriptive statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 4.0; it reached its lowest level of -54.0 in April 2020; it hit a maximum of 23.9 in April 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 9.2 |
| 2025-08-31 | 4.4 |
| 2025-09-30 | -1.2 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Montly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Free use subject to conditions |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
Series in the same data set
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