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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -15.0 in January 2026, compared to -7.0 in December 2025.
Sample. The monthly time series displayed in the graph has 389 observations overall. The series covers the time period stretching from January 1993 to January 2026.
History. Check out a few descriptive statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index achieved a maximum of 35.0 in May 2021; it recorded a bottom of -54.0 in December 2008; it was equal on average to -7.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -25.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | -7.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -15.0 |
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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 | 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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