Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: 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 the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -9.0 in September 2026, compared to -5.0 in August 2026.
Sample. This monthly series has 190 data points in total. The time span covered by the series is from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Take a look at some summary statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -3.6; it hit a minimum of -30.0 in May 2021; it reached its maximum of 14.0 in May 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | -10.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -5.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -9.00000 |
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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 | 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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