Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: 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. 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 future increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 5.0 in October 2026, versus 11.0 in September 2026.
Sample. There are 354 observations overall in the monthly time series presented in the plot above. The time range covered by the series stretches from May 1997 to October 2026.
History. Here are a few summary statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -12.0 in October 2022; it reached its maximum of 50.0 in February 2017; it had a mean value of 22.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 10.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 11.0000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 5.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capacity utilization 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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