Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Number of employees: 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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 11.8 in September 2026, compared to 27.9 in August.
Sample. There are 701 observations in the monthly time series displayed in the chart above. The series covers the time span extending from May 1968 to September 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its maximum of 39.6 in April 2022; it reached its lowest level of -51.8 in March 2009; it averaged 2.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 10.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 27.9000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 11.8000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees 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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