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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -3.0 in August 2026, compared to 4.0 in July 2026.
Sample. There are 396 observations in the monthly series displayed in the plot above. The period covered by the series is from January 1993 to August 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 1.1; it reached its minimum of -43.0 in February 2009; it hit a peak of 37.0 in July 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | -2.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 4.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | -3.0 |
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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 | 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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