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 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 future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 2.0 in January 2026, compared to 8.0 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 389 data points in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The period covered by the series is from January 1993 to January 2026.
History. Take a look at some descriptive statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 10.6; it recorded its highest level of 53.0 in July 2021; it hit a minimum of -21.0 in February 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -1.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 2.0 |
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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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