Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Wages: Future (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 future increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 44.0 in November 2025, compared to 43.0 in October 2025.
Sample. This monthly series has 345 records. The series covers the period stretching from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Have a look at a few simple statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 37.2; it hit a peak of 81.0 in December 2021; it recorded a minimum of -2.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 47.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 43.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | 44.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will wages increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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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