Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Richmond FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -5.0 in May 2026, compared to -6.0 in April.
Sample. There are 187 observations in the monthly series shown in the plot above. The period covered by the series is from February 2010 to May 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few summary statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to -7.6; it peaked at 7.0 in February 2010; it hit a trough of -41.0 in May 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | -12.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | -6.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | -5.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the availability of skills needed increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond |
| 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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