Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Wage and benefit costs: 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 wage and benefit costs (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 43.2 in September 2026, compared to 38.2 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 187 records overall. The series covers the time span stretching from March 2011 to September 2026.
History. Check out some simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 33.5; it recorded a bottom of -33.3 in April 2020; it reached its highest level of 61.3 in June 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 33.3000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 38.2000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 43.2000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did wage and benefit costs 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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