Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Richmond FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about nonmanufacturing firms collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 2.0 in September 2026, compared to 8.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 395 data points in the monthly series presented in the plot above. The time range covered by the series extends from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some descriptive statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index reached a trough of -35.0 in April 2020; it achieved a maximum of 24.0 in January 2000; it had a mean of 3.5.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 4.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 8.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 2.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees 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 | Yes |
| 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.