Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Unfilled orders: Current (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 unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -19.0 in October 2026, versus -8.0 in September.
Sample. There are 396 data points overall in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The series covers the time range going from November 1993 to October 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its lowest level of -54.0 in December 2008; it reached its maximum of 35.0 in May 2021; it had a mean value of -7.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | -11.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -8.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | -19.0000 |
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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 | 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) |
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