Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: Future (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 Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of nonmanufacturing firms surveyed by the Fed, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for the availability of skills needed (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 0.0 in September 2026, compared to -1.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 190 records in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The series covers the time span going from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Have a look at some descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -30.0 in October 2018; it attained a maximum of 24.0 in May 2020; it averaged -1.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -1.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the availability of skills needed 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 | 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
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