Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Number of employees: 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 the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -9.0 in January 2026, versus 7.5 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 295 data points in the monthly series shown in the chart above. The time period covered by the series is from July 2001 to January 2026.
History. Have a look at a few summary statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 3.9; it reached a maximum of 24.9 in February 2022; it reached its lowest level of -53.7 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | 6.5 |
| 2025-12-31 | 7.5 |
| 2026-01-31 | -9.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees 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) |
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