Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: 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 Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -2.0 in September 2025, compared to -12.0 in August.
Sample. There are 136 records overall in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The series covers the period stretching from February 2010 to September 2025.
History. Check out some descriptive statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -29.0 in June 2019; it reached its maximum of 12.0 in February 2010; it had a mean of -3.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 2.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -12.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -2.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the availability of skills needed 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) |
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