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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond 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 -15.0 in July 2026, compared to -12.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 189 data points. The series covers the time period going from February 2010 to July 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -45.0 in May 2021; it recorded its maximum of 9.0 in February 2015; it had an average value of -7.7.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-31 | -5.0 |
| 2026-06-30 | -12.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | -15.0 |
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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
Discover the other time series included in this data set.