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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 11.8 in September 2026, versus 27.9 in August.
Sample. In the monthly time series plotted above, there are 701 data points overall. The span of time covered by the series is from May 1968 to September 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at some simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to 2.2; it reached a trough of -51.8 in March 2009; it hit a peak of 39.6 in April 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 10.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 27.9 |
| 2026-09-30 | 11.8 |
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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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