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 -13.0 in September 2025, compared to -3.0 in August.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 259 records in total. The period covered by the series is from January 1997 to September 2025.
History. Here are a few simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -43.0 in February 2008; it recorded its highest level of 32.0 in March 2004; it had a mean value of -0.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -13.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -3.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -13.0 |
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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 | 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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