Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: Future (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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 9.0 in September 2026, compared to 16.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 395 records. The time period covered by the series is from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached a maximum of 52.0 in July 2021; it registered a minimum of -21.0 in December 2008; it had a mean of 10.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 12.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 16.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 9.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees 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 | 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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