Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Number of employees: Current (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 recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 6.5 in November 2025, compared to 9.1 in October 2025.
Sample. The monthly series shown in the chart has 691 records overall. The series covers the span of time going from May 1968 to November 2025.
History. Have a look at a few statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached its maximum of 45.7 in April 2022; it hit a trough of -48.8 in March 2009; it was equal on average to 2.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 3.6 |
| 2025-10-31 | 9.1 |
| 2025-11-30 | 6.5 |
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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 | 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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