Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey: Hours worked: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Dallas FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey (Dallas FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of service-sector firms surveyed by the Fed, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for hours worked (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 5.8 in September 2026, compared to 4.1 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 237 records overall in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The time span covered by the series goes from January 2007 to September 2026.
History. Check out some summary statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index averaged 5.8; it reached a trough of -17.7 in March 2020; it reached its highest level of 19.7 in April 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 2.90000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 4.10000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 5.80000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will hours worked 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 Dallas |
| 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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