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 survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 23.0 in November 2025, versus 15.0 in October 2025.
Sample. There are 345 observations in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The series covers the period extending from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Here are some descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index peaked at 49.0 in August 2021; it recorded a bottom of -14.0 in February 2009; it was equal on average to 14.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 11.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 15.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | 23.0 |
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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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