Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Number of employees: Future (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 recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the State of New York, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 13.9 in December 2025, versus 13.5 in November.
Sample. There are 294 observations overall in the monthly time series shown in the figure above. The time range covered by the series is from July 2001 to December 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 17.8; it recorded a minimum of -23.6 in March 2009; it attained a maximum of 44.5 in April 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-31 | 5.8 |
| 2025-11-30 | 13.5 |
| 2025-12-31 | 13.9 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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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