Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Wages: 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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 25.0 in August 2026, compared to 26.0 in July.
Sample. The monthly series shown in the figure has 354 observations. The period covered by the series extends from January 1997 to August 2026.
History. Here are some statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index averaged 14.5; it hit a peak of 49.0 in August 2021; it recorded a bottom of -14.0 in February 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | 21.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 26.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 25.0 |
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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 | 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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