02:27 PM EDT, 05/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Non-manufacturing activity in the Mid-Atlantic region moderated at the firm level in May as orders fell back into negative territory, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Tuesday.

The Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey's headline gauge for business activity fell to 7.3 in May from 18.4 in April at the firm level. Firms' assessment of general business activity for the region improved to minus 0.6 from minus 12.4, according to the regional Fed.

The gauge for new orders fell to minus 5.1 from positive 6.5 month over month while the index charting sales or revenue advanced for the second month in a row, to 11.4 in May from 8.7 in April, the survey showed. The responses taken between May 6-16 "suggest less widespread nonmanufacturing activity in the region," the Fed branch wrote.

Nearly 32% of participants reported increases in firm-level activity, a decline from 44% in April. The share reporting decreases ticked down two percentage points to 24%.

The prices paid index declined to 25.8 from 31 while prices received dipped to 5.2 from 12.2, according to the survey.

The measure for full-time employees dropped to 3.5 in May from 11 in April, reversing its increase from March to April, according to the Philly Fed.

Six months ahead, firms remained positive but tempered their expectations. The firm-level general business activity index tumbled to 10.2 from 37.8 month to month while the regional-level metric dipped to 6.1 from 10.8. The outlooks "suggest less widespread expectations of growth over the next six months," the regional Fed said.

Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that manufacturing activity in the region dropped to 4.5 in May from 15.5 in April, mostly undoing the index's increase from March to April and missing the consensus in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.