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 -3.0 in November 2025, compared to -7.0 in October.
Sample. There are 181 observations overall in the monthly series shown in the plot above. The series covers the time range going from February 2010 to November 2025.
History. Here's a peek at some simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded its highest level of 9.0 in February 2015; it recorded a bottom of -45.0 in May 2021; it had a mean value of -7.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -3.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -7.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -3.0 |
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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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