Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Average employee workweek: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 14.9 in September 2025, compared to 4.7 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 689 observations overall. The series covers the time period extending from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few summary statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 0.1; it achieved a maximum of 37.2 in March 2021; it reached its minimum of -55.4 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 0.4 |
| 2025-08-31 | 4.7 |
| 2025-09-30 | 14.9 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the average employee workweek 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 | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Not copyrightable under U.S. law |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
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