The Economic Census - Doig

Steve Doig, Arizona State U.

Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

Philadelphia

Jan. 31, 2011

Reynolds CenterBusinessJournalism.org

Economic CensusDetailed profile of economyConducted every five years since 1967Most recent year is 2007Covers all employer establishments (except

agriculture and public administration)Census of large and medium companies;

sample of small onesIndividual returns are confidentialAlso Survey of Business Owners

Uses of the dataDevelop public policyEvaluate industry growthDesign sales territories and find markets

Gauge competitivenessBusiness-to-businessDisaster response

Annual economic surveysBased on random samplesMore recent, but error margins existSurveys:

County Business PatternsAnnual Survey of Manufactures: Estimate of

statistics for all manufacturers with one or more employees

Non-employer Statistics: Estimates of businesses with no paid employees

Sectors coveredMiningUtilitiesConstructionManufacturingWholesale TradeRetail TradeTransportation

and Warehousing

Finance and Insurance

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

Accommodation and Food Services

Services

Data itemsEstablishments with

and without payrollTotal employeesProduction workers

and hoursTotal payroll for

year and 1st quarterCost of benefitsSales/receipts

Type of structureE-commerce salesTotal expensesCost of materials,

parts, fuel, electricity, utilities

Taxes, license feesCost of office suppliesCost of ads, rental,

legal, accountingEt al.

Geographies coveredData summary levels

NationStateMetropolitan Areas (1 or more counties)CountiesPlaces (with >5k residents or workers)ZIP Codes (but not ZCTAs)

Coverage varies by geography

Data release scheduleUse American Factfinder to get dataFlows out over a three-year periodMajority of it is available now

Survey of Business OwnersSent to 2.3 million owners in 2007Asks about characteristics of owners:

GenderRaceEthnicity (including country of origin)Veteran status

Story ideasGrowth of franchisesRestaurant reboundGender, race and ethnic changes in

ownershipChange in importance of economic sectors

(service over manufacturing, say)

Factfinder.census.gov

Quick ReportsReports by industry

or geographyData included:

Number of establishments

Sales, receipts, etc.Annual payrollNumber of

employees

Economy-wide statisticsData for each

subsector (NAICS 6-digit), nation, state, county, MSA

More than 3.3 million rows!

Can filter by geography and sector

Can download into Excel (if filtered to <65k rows)

Detailed statistics tablesCompare 2002 and

2007Get data by sectorHow to use:

Download into Excel to sort and filter