Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: Future (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. Based on a sample of nonmanufacturing firms surveyed by the Fed, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 19.0 in September 2026, compared to 21.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 190 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the figure above. The time span covered by the series stretches from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded its maximum of 47.0 in May 2021; it reached its lowest level of -10.0 in April 2020; it had a mean of 21.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 23.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 21.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 19.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees 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 | 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 |
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