Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Wages: 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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 17.0 in September 2026, versus 26.0 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly time series has a total of 353 observations. The series covers the period extending from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Take a look at a few summary statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a maximum of 48.0 in July 2021; it registered a minimum of -13.0 in February 2009; it had a mean of 14.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 28.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 26.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 17.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did wages 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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