Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Future (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 future increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 15.0 in September 2026, compared to 14.0 in August 2026.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 353 observations. The time range covered by the series extends from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of some simple statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index hit a peak of 52.0 in June 2020; it recorded a bottom of -10.0 in April 2020; it averaged 22.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 19.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 14.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 15.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capacity utilization 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 | 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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