Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: 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 Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -11.0 in September 2026, compared to -13.0 in August.
Sample. There are 190 observations in the monthly time series displayed in the graph above. The series covers the period going from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -7.8; it reached a minimum of -41.0 in May 2021; it reached its maximum of 7.0 in December 2010.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | -12.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -13.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -11.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the availability of skills needed 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) |
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