Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Average employee workweek: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 10.7 in September 2025, compared to 7.7 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 689 observations in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The series covers the time range going from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index registered a minimum of -49.2 in April 2020; it reached its maximum of 42.9 in March 2021; it had a mean value of 0.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 0.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 7.7 |
| 2025-09-30 | 10.7 |
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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 | No |
| 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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