by Calculated Risk on 9/11/2019 10:01:00 AM

I haven't posted this in a few months.

The BLS diffusion index for total private employment was at 53.5 in August, down from 57.8 in July.

For manufacturing, the diffusion index was at 51.3, down from 53.9 in August.

Think of this as a measure of how widespread job gains are across industries. The further from 50 (above or below), the more widespread the job losses or gains reported by the BLS.  From the BLS:

Figures are the percent of industries with employment increasing plus one-half of the industries with unchanged employment, where 50 percent indicates an equal balance between industries with increasing and decreasing employment.

Overall both total private and manufacturing job growth were not widespread in August.

Both indexes have been trending down in 2019 - indicating job growth is becoming less widespread across industries.