Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey: Number of employees: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Kansas City Fed - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Tenth Federal Reserve District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for number of employees was 11.0 (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) in September 2026, versus 13.0 in August 2026.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are a total of 303 records. The period covered by the series stretches from July 2001 to September 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few simple statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its highest level of 56.0 in January 2022; it reached its lowest level of -36.0 in February 2009; it had an average value of 14.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 14.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 13.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 11.0000 |
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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 |
| Seasonally adjusted | No |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Rescaling | None |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Reproduction allowed subject to conditions |
| Other information | FS correspondence: Number of employees |
| FSR temporal aggregation code | LM01 |
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