Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: Future (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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at -9.0 in January 2026, compared to -6.0 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 183 data points overall in the monthly time series displayed in the figure above. The period covered by the series extends from February 2010 to January 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few summary statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its minimum of -29.0 in June 2019; it achieved a maximum of 12.0 in February 2010; it was equal on average to -3.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -2.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | -6.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -9.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the availability of skills needed increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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) |
Series in the same data set
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