Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Current (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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -5.0 in September 2026, compared to 0.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 353 observations overall in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The span of time covered by the series stretches from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded its maximum of 32.0 in March 2004; it reached a minimum of -43.0 in December 2008; it averaged -0.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 2.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 0 |
| 2026-09-30 | -5.00000 |
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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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
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