Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Number of employees: Current (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 recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 7.9 in June 2026, compared to -2.8 in May 2026.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 698 observations overall. The series covers the time period extending from May 1968 to June 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its minimum of -51.8 in March 2009; it reached its maximum of 39.6 in April 2022; it had a mean of 2.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-04-30 | -5.1 |
| 2026-05-31 | -2.8 |
| 2026-06-30 | 7.9 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident 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) |
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