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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -20.0 in November 2025, compared to -11.0 in October.
Sample. There are 345 records in the monthly time series displayed in the chart above. The time range covered by the series is from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Have a look at some simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a trough of -43.0 in January 2009; it peaked at 32.0 in March 2004; it was equal on average to -0.8.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -13.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -11.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -20.0 |
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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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