Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: Future (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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 6.0 in February 2026, compared to 2.0 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly time series has 390 records in total. The period covered by the series stretches from January 1993 to February 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a maximum of 53.0 in July 2021; it reached its lowest level of -21.0 in February 2009; it had an average value of 10.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 2.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | 6.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees 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 | 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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