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. Based on firms' responses to the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey carried out by the Philadelphia FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 10.0 in July 2026, compared to 7.9 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly series has 699 records in total. The series covers the time period extending from May 1968 to July 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 2.2; it hit a trough of -51.8 in March 2009; it attained a maximum of 39.6 in April 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-31 | -2.8 |
| 2026-06-30 | 7.9 |
| 2026-07-31 | 10.0 |
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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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