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 45.0 in April 2026, versus 40.0 in March 2026.
Sample. There are 350 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the plot above. The time range covered by the series extends from January 1997 to April 2026.
History. Have a look at some descriptive statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 37.3; it hit a maximum of 81.0 in December 2021; it recorded a bottom of -2.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | 46.0 |
| 2026-03-31 | 40.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 45.0 |
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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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