Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Average employee workweek: Future (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 future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 17.9 in September 2025, compared to 0.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In the monthly series shown in the figure, there are 689 observations overall. The span of time covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Take a look at a few summary statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 8.2; it reached its highest level of 41.0 in March 1977; it reached a minimum of -30.6 in October 1990.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 10.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 0.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 17.9 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the average employee workweek 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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.