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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 24.0 in November 2025, compared to 15.0 in October 2025.
Sample. This monthly series has 345 observations overall. The time span covered by the series is from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Have a look at some descriptive statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -13.0 in February 2009; it recorded its maximum of 48.0 in July 2021; it averaged 14.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 13.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 15.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | 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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