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 24.1 in March 2026, versus 27.7 in February.
Sample. There are 695 data points overall in the monthly time series displayed in the figure above. The time span covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to March 2026.
History. Have a look at a few statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a peak of 41.0 in March 1977; it recorded a minimum of -27.8 in September 1979; it averaged 8.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-31 | 15.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | 27.7 |
| 2026-03-31 | 24.1 |
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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.