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 recent survey data about manufacturing firms 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 9.0 in May 2026, compared to 2.0 in April 2026.
Sample. In the monthly series displayed in the figure, there are 351 data points. The span of time covered by the series goes from January 1997 to May 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 11.0; it reached a minimum of -30.0 in October 2022; it hit a peak of 40.0 in February 2002.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 7.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 2.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 9.0 |
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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) |
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