Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: General business activity: 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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 23.2 in September 2025, compared to -0.3 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 689 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the figure above. The time range covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached a minimum of -60.5 in April 2020; it reached its maximum of 58.5 in March 1973; it had an average value of 8.8.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 15.9 |
| 2025-08-31 | -0.3 |
| 2025-09-30 | 23.2 |
Heads-up. A benefit of using FetchSeries is that we give you rich metadata. Find it below to gain insights on the characteristics of the time series that you are exploring.
Not for investment purposes. Data collected and published on this web site are not intended for investment purposes or as a basis for financial-decision making. Users should seek professional advice and perform their own independent due diligence before pledging money to any investment.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did general business activity 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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.