Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Unfilled orders: Current (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 unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -23.0 in November 2025, compared to -16.0 in October 2025.
Sample. There are 387 observations overall in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The series covers the time span going from January 1993 to November 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its maximum of 31.0 in May 2021; it reached a minimum of -50.0 in February 2009; it had an average value of -7.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -21.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -16.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -23.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did unfilled orders increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident 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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