Empire State Manufacturing Survey: General business activity: 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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the State of New York, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 11.9 in August 2025, versus 5.5 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 290 records overall in the montly series presented in the chart above. The series covers the period going from July 2001 to August 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few descriptive statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 6.3; it attained a maximum of 39.0 in April 2004; it hit a trough of -79.9 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-06-30 | -16.0 |
| 2025-07-31 | 5.5 |
| 2025-08-31 | 11.9 |
Tip. We group indicators into data sets and worksheets for easier exploration. If you look below, you will discover how we structured further information related to the statistics found here.
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did general business activity 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 | Montly |
| 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) |