Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: 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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for new orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -22.0 in November 2025, versus -6.0 in October 2025.
Sample. There are 387 records overall in the monthly time series displayed in the graph above. The series covers the period extending from January 1993 to November 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of some simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index hit a trough of -56.0 in December 2008; it reached a maximum of 45.0 in April 2010; it was equal on average to 1.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -9.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -6.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -22.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did new orders 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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