by Calculated Risk on 11/18/2010 10:00:00 AM

Here is the Philadelphia Fed Index: Business Outlook Survey

Results from the Business Outlook Survey suggest that regional manufacturing activity showed improvement in November. All of the survey's broad indicators of economic performance showed improvement from their reading in October, and firms reported an increase in employment and work hours.
...
The survey's broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, increased from a reading of 1.0 in October to 22.5 in November. This is the highest reading in the index since last December. Indexes for new orders and shipments also improved this month, and each index increased 15 points.
...
Labor market conditions also showed some improvement this month, paralleling the improvement in other broad indicators. This month, firms also reported some growth in employment and a longer workweek.
emphasis added

This is well above the consensus expectations of a reading of 5.6 - and shows the opposite of the NY Fed manufacturing survey.