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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 8.0 in October 2026, the same value recorded in September.
Sample. There are 396 records in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The series covers the time period going from November 1993 to October 2026.
History. Have a look at some summary statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index registered a minimum of -21.0 in February 2009; it reached its highest level of 53.0 in July 2021; it averaged 10.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 20.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 8.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 8.00000 |
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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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