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 collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 23.0 in May 2026, compared to 7.0 in April.
Sample. There are 393 observations in the monthly time series presented in the plot above. The series covers the time span stretching from January 1993 to May 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 10.6; it reached its minimum of -21.0 in February 2009; it recorded its maximum of 53.0 in July 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 14.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 7.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 23.0 |
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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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