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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 19.0 in February 2026, compared to 18.0 in January.
Sample. In the monthly series displayed in the chart, there are a total of 348 data points. The time span covered by the series is from January 1997 to February 2026.
History. Here are a few descriptive statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -14.0 in February 2009; it recorded its highest level of 49.0 in August 2021; it had a mean value of 14.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 24.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 18.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | 19.0 |
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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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