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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond 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 October 2026, compared to 9.0 in September 2026.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 396 observations. The time range covered by the series is from November 1993 to October 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some summary statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 10.6; it hit a peak of 52.0 in July 2021; it recorded a bottom of -21.0 in December 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 16.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 9.00000 |
| 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 | 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
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