Average Fed Srv Survey: Number of employees: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - FSR - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Average Fed Srv Survey (FetchSeries Research)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on an average of regional Federal Reserve services surveys, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees was 0.2 (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) in September 2026, compared to 1.2 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 153 observations overall in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The time range covered by the series is from January 2014 to September 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to 7.1; it recorded a minimum of -35.8 in April 2020; it hit a peak of 20.3 in June 2018.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 5.06000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 1.18000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 0.200000 |
Hint. To simplify research, we categorize series into worksheets and datasets. When you navigate further down, you will discover how we structured further information related to the statistics published here.
Not for investment purposes. Data and analyses shared on FetchSeries are not intended for investment purposes or as a basis for financial-decision making. Users should obtain professional advice and perform their own independent due diligence before making any financial commitments.
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 |
| Seasonally adjusted | No |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Rescaling | None |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | FetchSeries Research calculations on Federal Reserve data |
| Source type | Data research lab |
| Data licence | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) + FetchSeries disclaimers |
| Other information | Arithmetic average across 5 regional Federal Reserve services surveys |
| FSR temporal aggregation code | LM01 |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.