Empire State Manufacturing Survey: General business activity: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 27.3 in April 2026, versus 6.9 in March 2026.
Sample. The monthly time series presented in the chart has 298 observations. The span of time covered by the series goes from July 2001 to April 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 6.1; it reached its lowest level of -73.5 in April 2020; it recorded its maximum of 45.8 in April 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | 15.2 |
| 2026-03-31 | 6.9 |
| 2026-04-30 | 27.3 |
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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 | No |
| 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) |
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