Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: Future (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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 8.0 in April 2026, versus 15.0 in March 2026.
Sample. In the monthly time series displayed in the graph, there are 392 records. The time range covered by the series goes from January 1993 to April 2026.
History. Check out some summary statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index achieved a maximum of 52.0 in July 2021; it registered a minimum of -21.0 in February 2009; it had a mean of 10.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | 8.0 |
| 2026-03-31 | 15.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 8.0 |
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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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.