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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 1.0 in September 2025, compared to -4.0 in August.
Sample. There are 290 data points overall in the monthly time series presented in the graph above. The series covers the time span going from January 1993 to September 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 10.5; it registered a minimum of -21.0 in February 2008; it attained a maximum of 52.0 in July 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -12.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -4.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 1.0 |
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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) |
Series in the same data set
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