Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: 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 the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -9.0 in November 2025, compared to -10.0 in October 2025.
Sample. There are 387 records in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The series covers the span of time extending from January 1993 to November 2025.
History. Here are some descriptive statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index attained a maximum of 37.0 in July 2021; it reached its lowest level of -43.0 in February 2009; it had a mean value of 1.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -15.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -10.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -9.0 |
Heads-up. One of the advantages of using FetchSeries is that we give you rich metadata. Find it below to learn more about the characteristics of the series that you use in your work.
Not for investment purposes. Any financial data available on FetchSeries are not meant for investment purposes or as a basis for making financial decisions. Users should ask for professional advice and do independent analysis before taking any financial risk.
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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.