Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Current (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 capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 0.0 in August 2026, versus 2.0 in July.
Sample. The monthly series presented in the chart has 354 observations overall. The series covers the period stretching from January 1997 to August 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few summary statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its maximum of 32.0 in March 2004; it reached a minimum of -43.0 in January 2009; it averaged -0.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | -1.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 2.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 0.0 |
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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 | 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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