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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 7.3 in December 2025, compared to 6.6 in November 2025.
Sample. There are 294 data points overall in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The span of time covered by the series is from July 2001 to December 2025.
History. Take a look at some descriptive statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 4.0; it reached its maximum of 23.9 in April 2004; it hit a trough of -54.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-31 | 6.2 |
| 2025-11-30 | 6.6 |
| 2025-12-31 | 7.3 |
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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) |
Series in the same data set
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