Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -13.0 in August 2026, compared to -15.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 190 data points overall in the monthly time series shown in the graph above. The period covered by the series extends from February 2010 to August 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few descriptive statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -7.7; it registered a minimum of -45.0 in May 2021; it hit a peak of 9.0 in February 2015.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | -12.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | -15.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | -13.0 |
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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 | No |
| 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) |
Series in the same data set
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