Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: 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 the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 3.0 in October 2026, versus 7.0 in September.
Sample. There are 396 data points overall in the monthly series shown in the chart above. The time span covered by the series extends from November 1993 to October 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few summary statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its minimum of -35.0 in February 2009; it reached a maximum of 34.0 in July 2021; it had an average value of 1.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | -2.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 7.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 3.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees 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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