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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for wages (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 13.0 in September 2025, versus 22.0 in August 2025.
Sample. There are 259 data points in the monthly time series presented in the chart above. The time period covered by the series goes from January 1997 to September 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of some statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index attained a maximum of 48.0 in July 2021; it recorded a minimum of -9.0 in April 2009; it was equal on average to 14.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 17.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 22.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 13.0 |
Suggestion. We group indicators into worksheets and datasets to simplify complex analyses. If you look below, you will find how we arranged further information linked to the statistics published here.
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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) |
Series in the same data set
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