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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 3.4 in March 2026, compared to 0.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 695 records in total. The series covers the period going from May 1968 to March 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few descriptive statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its maximum of 45.7 in April 2022; it reached a trough of -48.8 in March 2009; it averaged 2.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-31 | 10.7 |
| 2026-02-28 | 0.0 |
| 2026-03-31 | 3.4 |
Suggestion. One of the pros of using our web site is that we provide complete metadata. Find it below to delve deeper into the characteristics of the time series that you are exploring.
Not for investment purposes. Data and analyses accessible on FetchSeries are not not supposed to be used for investment purposes or any other financial decision. Users should ask for expert advice and perform their own independent due diligence before making any financial commitments.
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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.