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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -1.0 in May 2026, versus 5.0 in April.
Sample. This monthly series has 351 records overall. The series covers the time range stretching from January 1997 to May 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few summary statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -0.9; it registered a minimum of -53.0 in April 2020; it reached a maximum of 30.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | -5.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 5.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | -1.0 |
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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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