Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: Future (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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -5.0 in November 2025, compared to 3.0 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly time series has 181 records in total. The series covers the time span going from February 2010 to November 2025.
History. Have a look at a few statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -30.0 in May 2021; it reached its highest level of 14.0 in May 2020; it was equal on average to -3.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -1.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 3.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -5.0 |
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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 | 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) |
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