Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Number of employees: Future (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. Based on manufacturing firms' responses to the Empire State Survey carried out by the New York FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 20.0 in September 2026, compared to 28.2 in August.
Sample. There are 303 records overall in the monthly time series presented in the figure above. The series covers the period extending from July 2001 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some descriptive statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a peak of 42.7 in July 2021; it hit a trough of -22.0 in March 2009; it had a mean of 18.0.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 14.4000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 28.2000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 20.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| 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) |
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