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. Based on firms' responses to the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey carried out by the Philadelphia FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 34.3 in June 2026, compared to 18.4 in May 2026.
Sample. There are 698 records in the monthly series displayed in the figure above. The time span covered by the series is from May 1968 to June 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some descriptive statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 8.4; it achieved a maximum of 41.0 in March 1977; it reached a minimum of -27.8 in September 1979.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-04-30 | 30.3 |
| 2026-05-31 | 18.4 |
| 2026-06-30 | 34.3 |
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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
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