Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Average employee workweek: Future (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 future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 9.7 in October 2025, versus 2.0 in September.
Sample. There are 292 records in the monthly time series shown in the plot above. The time range covered by the series is from July 2001 to October 2025.
History. Here’s a quick look at some statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 7.3; it reached a trough of -13.8 in February 2009; it recorded its maximum of 33.0 in February 2002.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-08-31 | 0.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 2.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 9.7 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the average employee workweek 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 | 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) |