Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Average employee workweek: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - NY FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Empire State Manufacturing Survey (NY FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on manufacturing firms' responses to the Empire State Survey carried out by the New York FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 3.5 in December 2025, compared to 7.7 in the previous month.
Sample. The monthly series shown in the chart has a total of 294 data points. The series covers the period extending from July 2001 to December 2025.
History. Have a look at some simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index hit a trough of -63.2 in April 2020; it recorded its maximum of 33.5 in April 2004; it had a mean value of 1.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-31 | -4.1 |
| 2025-11-30 | 7.7 |
| 2025-12-31 | 3.5 |
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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 | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Free use subject to conditions |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.