Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Unfilled orders: Future (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 based in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 13.8 in March 2026, versus 25.9 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are a total of 695 observations. The time period covered by the series is from May 1968 to March 2026.
History. Here are a few simple statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 8.8; it hit a maximum of 55.0 in June 1983; it reached its minimum of -40.4 in August 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-31 | 14.3 |
| 2026-02-28 | 25.9 |
| 2026-03-31 | 13.8 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will unfilled orders increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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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