Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Average employee workweek: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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 collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 8.3 in October 2026, compared to 28.0 in September 2026.
Sample. There are 702 data points in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The time period covered by the series is from May 1968 to October 2026.
History. Check out a few statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -30.6 in October 1990; it reached a maximum of 41.0 in March 1977; it had an average value of 8.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 16.7000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 28.0000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 8.30000 |
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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 | No |
| 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) |
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