Nonmanufacturing 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: Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about nonmanufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 10.8 in September 2026, versus -14.7 in August 2026.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are a total of 187 data points. The series covers the period extending from March 2011 to September 2026.
History. Here are a few simple statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to 12.9; it recorded its maximum of 38.5 in December 2011; it hit a trough of -46.4 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 7.70000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -14.7000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 10.8000 |
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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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