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) stood at 19.0 in May 2026, compared to 8.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 393 data points in the monthly series presented in the plot above. The series covers the time span extending from January 1993 to May 2026.
History. Take a look at some summary statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 10.6; it reached its highest level of 52.0 in July 2021; it hit a trough of -21.0 in February 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 15.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 8.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 19.0 |
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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.