Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Current (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 capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -18.0 in November 2025, compared to -10.0 in October 2025.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 345 observations overall. The series covers the time range going from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had an average value of -0.8; it reached its maximum of 30.0 in March 2004; it hit a minimum of -53.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -18.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -10.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -18.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capacity utilization 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 | 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) |
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