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. 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 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 records overall in the monthly time series shown in the figure above. The series covers the period going from February 2010 to January 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some summary statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -30.0 in May 2021; it reached its maximum of 14.0 in May 2020; it had a mean value of -3.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -5.0 |
| 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 | 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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