Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Wage and benefit costs: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about nonmanufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for wage and benefit costs (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 40.7 in September 2026, compared to 39.2 in August.
Sample. There are 187 observations overall in the monthly series displayed in the chart above. The time range covered by the series extends from March 2011 to September 2026.
History. Here are a few simple statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index attained a maximum of 62.5 in November 2021; it recorded a minimum of -37.3 in April 2020; it had an average value of 33.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 37.1000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 39.2000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 40.7000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did wage and benefit costs 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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