Third District Historical Data

Business Outlook Survey

Data definitions and other information
Diffusion index data: Contains only final computed series, i.e., general activity index, new orders, future capital spending.
Expanded data series: Contains non-seasonally and seasonally adjusted data of index components, i.e., number of decreases (d), number of increases (i), and unchanged (n).

Other Data Sets

All files are in Excel spreadsheet format.

Employment, Unemployment, and Housing

We gather payroll employment data (BLS), household employment data (BLS), and unemployment insurance claims data (DOL) for the U.S., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In addition, payroll and household employment data for the MSA areas in the three-state region are available on this website. All data are seasonally adjusted. The BLS seasonally adjusts employment data for the U.S. and the three states. Metro area data and unemployment insurance claims for the three states are seasonally adjusted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. We also gather data on the housing market. Housing permits (census) for the nation, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the MSA areas within our three-state area are available. Housing permits data are seasonally adjusted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Excel files of available employment and housing data are listed below by states and MSAs. Data are also available in the older format for legacy use.

County-level data on payroll and household employment are available and listed below in Excel format. Payroll employment for counties are downloaded from the BLS’s Quarterly Census of Earnings and Wages (QCEW) and are not seasonally adjusted because of unreported data. County-level unemployment series are seasonally adjusted by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank.