Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Wages: 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 wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 24.0 in May 2026, compared to 25.0 in April 2026.
Sample. There are 351 data points overall in the monthly time series presented in the graph above. The series covers the time period going from January 1997 to May 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of some simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 14.4; it hit a maximum of 48.0 in July 2021; it reached its minimum of -13.0 in February 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 14.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 25.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 24.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did wages 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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