Regional Matters

While most Fifth District firms intend to increase full-time employment or hold it steady due to projected demand increase, others intend to decrease through attrition or a combination of attrition and layoffs.

The recent changes to how federal agencies define metro areas impact how we report, analyze, and better understand the Fifth District.

This post summarizes the 2025 Federal Reserve CDFI Survey and reviews past results to shed light on how the CDFI industry has changed over time.

This post shares sensing insights from business contacts in recent weeks. Overall, businesses said activity increased somewhat while expectations remained mixed, labor availability improved, and more cost passthrough was expected.

Foreign-born workers have made outsized contributions to the Fifth District's labor force growth, but the concentration of these workers varies across industry and geography.

Though tariff uncertainty persists, most Fifth District businesses that are directly affected by tariffs have raised prices, and many plan to raise prices in the coming months.

We are learning from businesses that there are several factors that can delay both the incurring of tariffs and the impact of incurred tariffs on pricing decisions.

This post provides an early look into some of our findings from the 2025 CDFI Survey before we release a full key findings report on Sept. 19.

The DMV region comprises a large share of federal employees who have experienced both employment declines and elevated unemployment claims. Employment changes are occurring in the private sector as well.

Survey data indicates that many Fifth District firms expect to keep employment levels relatively stable, with uncertainty around economic conditions and consumer behavior remaining an important consideration.