Kansas City Fed Services Survey: Wages and benefits: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Kansas City Fed - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Kansas City Fed Services Survey
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about services firms in the Tenth Federal Reserve District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for wages and benefits (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 50.0 in September 2026, compared to 35.0 in August.
Sample. There are 153 observations in the monthly series displayed in the chart above. The series covers the span of time going from January 2014 to September 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some simple statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index attained a maximum of 73.0 in January 2022; it registered a minimum of -10.0 in March 2020; it had a mean value of 43.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 41.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 35.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 50.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will wages and benefits increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading indicator of the business cycle |
| Seasonally adjusted | No |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Rescaling | None |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Reproduction allowed subject to conditions |
| Other information | FS correspondence: Wages and benefits |
| FSR temporal aggregation code | LM01 |
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