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 manufacturing firms' responses to the Empire State Survey carried out by the New York FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 4.4 in August 2025, compared to 9.2 in July 2025.
Sample. There are 290 observations in the montly series displayed in the graph above. The span of time covered by the series extends from July 2001 to August 2025.
History. Take a look at some descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached its lowest level of -54.0 in April 2020; it hit a maximum of 23.9 in April 2004; it had a mean of 4.0.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-06-30 | 4.7 |
| 2025-07-31 | 9.2 |
| 2025-08-31 | 4.4 |
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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 | 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) |