Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: 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 Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 1.0 in September 2026, compared to 7.0 in August.
Sample. In the monthly series presented in the graph, there are 395 data points. The series covers the span of time going from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Here are some simple statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index registered a minimum of -33.0 in January 2009; it reached its maximum of 26.0 in July 2018; it averaged 3.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 5.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 7.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 1.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did the number of employees 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.