Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: 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 capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -18.0 in September 2025, versus 1.0 in August 2025.
Sample. There are 259 observations overall in the monthly time series shown in the figure above. The span of time covered by the series stretches from January 1997 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to -0.8; it reached a minimum of -53.0 in April 2020; it achieved a maximum of 30.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -14.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 1.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -18.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capacity utilization 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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