Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Unfilled orders: 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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -14.0 in September 2025, versus -13.0 in August 2025.
Sample. The monthly time series presented in the graph has 259 data points overall. The series covers the time period stretching from January 1997 to September 2025.
History. Have a look at some summary statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its minimum of -27.0 in January 2022; it peaked at 39.0 in March 2018; it had a mean value of 10.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -11.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -13.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -14.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will unfilled orders 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) |