Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Number of employees: 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. Based on a sample of nonmanufacturing firms surveyed by the Fed, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for the number of employees (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 17.0 in September 2026, compared to 18.0 in August.
Sample. The monthly series displayed in the plot has 190 data points. The time range covered by the series extends from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -9.0 in May 2020; it achieved a maximum of 49.0 in May 2021; it averaged 21.4.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 21.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 18.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 17.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will the number of employees 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 |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.