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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -7.0 in September 2026, versus 2.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 353 records in total. The series covers the period stretching from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Take a look at a few simple statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -0.9; it achieved a maximum of 31.0 in March 2004; it reached a trough of -55.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 2.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 2.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -7.00000 |
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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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