Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Number of employees: 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 number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 48.0 in September 2026, versus 29.2 in August 2026.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 701 observations in total. The time span covered by the series is from May 1968 to September 2026.
History. Have a look at a few descriptive statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index averaged 15.4; it registered a minimum of -33.4 in September 1990; it reached a maximum of 61.2 in December 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 24.1000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 29.2000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 48.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees 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) |
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