Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: 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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 7.0 in September 2026, compared to -2.0 in August.
Sample. The monthly time series plotted above has a total of 395 records. The series covers the time range extending from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Check out some simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index averaged 1.2; it hit a peak of 34.0 in July 2021; it reached its minimum of -35.0 in February 2009.
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 the number of employees 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) |
Series in the same data set
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