Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Availability of skills needed: 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 Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about nonmanufacturing firms based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted 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.
Sample. There are 190 observations overall in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The time period covered by the series extends from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to -1.4; it reached a maximum of 21.0 in April 2020; it recorded a minimum of -33.0 in October 2018.
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 | 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
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