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. Based on firms' responses to the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey carried out by the Philadelphia FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the average employee workweek (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 21.4 in January 2026, compared to 23.1 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 693 records in the monthly time series shown in the graph above. The series covers the period going from May 1968 to January 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 8.2; it hit a maximum of 41.0 in March 1977; it hit a minimum of -30.6 in October 1990.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | 25.8 |
| 2025-12-31 | 23.1 |
| 2026-01-31 | 21.4 |
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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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