Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Unfilled orders: Current (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 unfilled orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -16.0 in September 2025, compared to -18.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 290 observations in the monthly series displayed in the chart above. The period covered by the series goes from January 1993 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few summary statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -7.2; it reached its maximum of 35.0 in May 2021; it hit a minimum of -54.0 in February 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -31.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -18.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -16.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did unfilled 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 | 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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