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. According to survey data about NY-based manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 6.8 in October 2025, compared to -2.0 in September.
Sample. There are 292 observations in the monthly time series shown in the graph above. The time span covered by the series is from July 2001 to October 2025.
History. Here's a peek at some summary statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded its highest level of 45.8 in April 2004; it registered a minimum of -73.5 in April 2020; it had a mean of 6.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-08-31 | 2.8 |
| 2025-09-30 | -2.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 6.8 |
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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) |