Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Average employee workweek: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about manufacturers based in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 15.0 in January 2026, compared to 17.7 in December 2025.
Sample. In the monthly time series shown in the chart, there are 693 data points. The time period covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to January 2026.
History. Check out some descriptive statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a maximum of 41.0 in March 1977; it hit a trough of -27.8 in September 1979; it was equal on average to 8.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | 23.1 |
| 2025-12-31 | 17.7 |
| 2026-01-31 | 15.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the average employee workweek 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 | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Not copyrightable under U.S. law |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.