All Federal Reserve Banks operate within a specific geographic area—called a district. The Cleveland Fed is in the Fourth District of the Federal Reserve System, which covers Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

The Cleveland Fed’s Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE) covers the Fourth District, and FRED now includes 27 of those data series.

The FRED graph above shows the broadest summary of business conditions captured by SORCE.

• Total (solid blue line)
• Manufacturing and transportation (dashed green line)
• Other (dashed orange line)

The latest value for total business conditions at the time of this writing is 8. And what does that mean?

Each index value shows the difference between the percentage of survey respondents reporting increases and the percentage reporting decreases in business conditions, including demand, employment, inflation, etc. Measures calculated this way are often called diffusion indexes.

These values vary from positive to negative: The index shows a negative value when survey respondents reporting decreases outweigh survey respondents reporting increases. It shows a positive value when survey respondents reporting increases outweigh survey respondents reporting decreases.

Between June 2014 and the time of this writing, the SORCE index values have ranged between a maximum of 67 (May 2018) and a minimum of -80 (May 2020). Most frequently, they oscillate between 30 and -20.

FRED has an array of regional Fed datasets, with a few of them listed below.

• Chicago Fed’s Midwest Economy Index
• Dallas Fed’s Texas Employment Data
• New York Fed’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Total Business Conditions, Diffusion Index for Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE).” Click on the “Edit Graph” button and select the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “Manufacturing & Transportation Business Conditions, Diffusion Index for Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE).” Don’t forget to click on “Add data series.” Repeat the last two steps to search for and add “Other Industries Business Conditions, Diffusion Index for Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE).”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.