Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: 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 new orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -15.0 in September 2025, versus -6.0 in August.
Sample. There are 290 records in the monthly series shown in the figure above. The series covers the time span going from January 1993 to September 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of some descriptive statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index averaged 1.5; it reached its maximum of 38.0 in June 2021; it reached its minimum of -62.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -25.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -6.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -15.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did new orders 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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