Notice2022-24035
Annual Integrated Economic Survey
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
November 4, 2022
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Abstract
Notice is hereby given that the Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) is considering a proposal to conduct the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES). The AIES is a new survey designed to integrate and replace seven existing annual business surveys into one survey and will provide the only comprehensive national and subnational data on business revenues, expenses, and assets on an annual basis. The AIES is designed to combine Census Bureau collections to reduce respondent burden, increase data quality, and allow the Census Bureau to operate more efficiently to reduce costs. These data are not publicly available from nongovernment or other governmental sources. Based on information and recommendations received by the Census Bureau, the data have significant application to the needs of other government agencies and the public.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 213 (Friday, November 4, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 213 (Friday, November 4, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66643-66645]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-24035]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
[Docket Number 221014-0215]
RIN 0607-XC065
Annual Integrated Economic Survey
AGENCY: Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of consideration and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Bureau of the Census (Census
Bureau) is considering a proposal to conduct the Annual Integrated
Economic Survey (AIES). The AIES is a new survey designed to integrate
and replace seven existing annual business surveys into one survey and
will provide the only comprehensive national and subnational data on
business revenues, expenses, and assets on an annual basis. The AIES is
designed to combine Census Bureau collections to reduce respondent
burden, increase data quality, and allow the Census Bureau to operate
more efficiently to reduce costs. These data are not publicly available
from nongovernment or other governmental sources. Based on information
and recommendations received by the Census Bureau, the data have
significant application to the needs of other government agencies and
the public.
DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before
December 5, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be addressed to Blynda Metcalf, U.S.
Census Bureau, Associate Directorate for Economic Programs (ADEP),
Washington, DC 20233-6600, (301) 763-4781, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c082acb9aea4a1ee8bee8da5b4a3a1aca680a3a5aeb3b5b3eea7afb6"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="60220c190e04014e2b4e2d051403010c062003050e1315134e070f16">[email protected]</span></a>.
You may also submit comments, identified by Docket Number USBC-2022-
0015 to the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
All comments received are part of the public record. No comments will
be posted to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> for public viewing until after
the comment period has closed. Comments will generally be posted
without change. All Personally Identifiable Information (for example,
name and address) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be
publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected information. You may submit
attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe
PDF file formats.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of the information collection instrument(s) and instructions
should be directed to Blynda Metcalf, U.S. Census Bureau, ADEP,
Washington, DC 20233-6600, (301) 763-4781, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#8bc9e7f2e5efeaa5c0a5c6eeffe8eae7edcbe8eee5f8fef8a5ece4fd"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f1b39d889f9590dfbadfbc948592909d97b192949f828482df969e87">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Census Bureau plans to conduct the AIES
on an annual basis, beginning in survey year 2023. The Census Bureau
will conduct the AIES under the authority of Title 13, United States
Code, sections, 131 and 182. The AIES is a new survey designed to
integrate and replace seven existing annual business surveys into one
survey. The AIES will provide the only comprehensive national and
subnational data on business revenues, expenses, and assets on an
annual basis. The AIES is designed to combine Census Bureau collections
to reduce respondent burden, increase data quality, and allow the
Census Bureau to operate more efficiently to reduce costs. The existing
collections integrated into the AIES are the Annual Retail Trade Survey
(ARTS), Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS), Service Annual Survey
(SAS), Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), Annual Capital Expenditures
Survey (ACES), Manufacturer's Unfilled Orders Survey (M3UFO), and the
Report of Organization. The ARTS has been conducted annually since 1951
to collect sales, expenses, and other items for the retail sector of
the economy. The AWTS has been conducted annually since 1978 to collect
data on sales, inventories, operational expenses, and purchases for
wholesale trade. The SAS has been conducted annually since 1982 to
collect revenues and other measures for most traditional service
industries. The ASM has been conducted annually since 1948 to collect
revenues, expenses, capital expenditures, fuels and electric energy
used, and inventories in the manufacturing sector. The ACES has been
conducted annually since 1996 to collect capital spending for new and
used structures and equipment in agriculture, construction, mining,
manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and service sectors. The M3UFO began
collecting manufacturing revenue and unfilled orders data in 2010. The
Report of Organization has been collecting information on organization
and structure of firms to maintain the Business Register on an annual
basis since 1973.
Estimates currently published in ARTS, AWTS, SAS, ASM, and ACES
will be produced as part of the AIES and expanded to include
subnational data across the economy. Previously, the
[[Page 66644]]
ASM (manufacturing) was the only annual survey being integrated into
AIES that produced subnational data. AIES will produce subnational data
for manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and service sectors if quality
standards are met. The AIES information previously collected on the
Report of Organization will continue to be used to update the Business
Register, and the AIES data previously collected on the M3UFO will
continue to be used for the M3 benchmarking purposes. Data users will
be able to access the AIES estimates through <a href="http://data.census.gov">data.census.gov</a>. Private
businesses, organizations, industry analysts, educators and students,
and economic researchers have used the data and estimates provided by
these seven existing collections for analyzing and conducting impact
evaluations on past and current economic performance, short-term
economic forecasts, productivity, long-term economic growth, market
analysis, tax policy, capacity utilization, business fixed capital
stocks and capital formation, domestic and international
competitiveness trade policy, product development, market research, and
financial analysis. Trade and professional organizations have used the
estimates to analyze industry trends and benchmark their own
statistical programs, develop forecasts, and evaluate regulatory
requirements. Government program officials and agencies have used the
data for research, economic policy making, and forecasting. Based on
the use of the data of the existing collections, estimates produced
from the AIES will serve as a benchmark for Census Bureau indicator
programs, such as the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food
Services (MARTS), the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS),
Manufacturers' Shipments Inventories & Orders (M3), Monthly Wholesale
Trade Survey (MWTS), and the Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). Like the
previous collections, the AIES will provide updates to the Longitudinal
Research Database (LRD), and Census Bureau staff and academic
researchers with sworn agent status will continue to use the LRD for
micro data analysis. The Census Bureau will also continue to use
information collected in the AIES to update and maintain the
centralized, multipurpose Business Register that provides sampling
populations and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic
surveys and censuses. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will
continue to use the estimates to derive industry output for the input-
output accounts and for the gross domestic product (GDP). We expect
that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will continue to use the data
as input to its Producer Price Index (PPI) and in developing
productivity measurements; the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) will
continue to use the data to prepare the Index of Industrial Production,
to improve estimates of investment indicators for monetary policy, and
in monitoring retail credit lending; the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to use the data to estimate
expenditures for the National Health Accounts and for monitoring and
evaluating healthcare industries; and the Department of the Treasury
will continue use the data to analyze depreciation and to research
economic trends.
The AIES covers domestic, nonfarm employer businesses with
operations during the survey year. Nonemployer businesses are not
within the scope of this new AIES. The Census Bureau will submit a
separate request for approval to collect data from nonemployer
businesses, if it is determined that a collection is needed to produce
those estimates.
All proposed content for the AIES is currently being collected on
the surveys it will replace. The AIES will collect the following
information from employer businesses in the AIES sample:
--Business characteristics, including employment, operating status,
organizational change, ownership information, and co-op status
--Business classification, including business activity, type of
operation, and tax status
--Revenue, including sales, shipments, and receipts, revenue by class
of customer, taxes, contributions, gifts, and grants, products, and e-
commerce activity
--Operating expenses, including purchased services, payroll, benefits,
rental payments, utilities, interest, resales, equipment, materials and
supplies, research and development, and other detailed operating
expenses
--Assets, including capital expenditures, inventories, and depreciable
assets
--Robotic equipment
Additional topics of collections in the AIES include sources of
revenue for providers (e.g., hospitals and other businesses in the
health industry) of select services such as inpatient days, outpatient
visits to hospitals, patient visits for other selected health
industries, revenue from telemedicine services, and expenses for
electronic health records. Product data will be collected from
businesses operating in manufacturing and services industries.
Merchandise lines data will be collected from businesses operating in
select retail industries will collect merchandise lines data. Detailed
inventories will be collected for trucks, truck tractors, and trailers.
Starting with the 2024 survey, the AIES may include new questions
each year based on relevant business topics. Potential topics for such
new questions could include technological advances, management and
business practices, exporting practices, and globalization.
In survey years 2019 and 2020, research was conducted on the
potential impacts of a coordinated collection of SAS, ARTS, and AWTS.
This coordinated collection research was designed to investigate the
impact of implementing the existing contact strategy that encompassed
multiple survey requests. Following the 2019 and 2020 coordinated
collection research effort, approximately 19 interviews were conducted
with nonrespondents, and 35 interviews were conducted with respondents.
In 2021, AIES data accessibility and recordkeeping studies were
conducted with about 60 companies. In survey year 2021, a pilot AIES
survey was administered to 78 companies, including 2,863
establishments, to test the respondent experience; the 2021 pilot AIES
survey focused on the layout and design of the collection instrument
and harmonized content. From the pilot survey, 10 interviews were
conducted with respondents, and 15 Response Analysis Surveys (RAS) were
completed by respondents. Cognitive testing encompassing survey
structure, instrument design, and respondent reporting process was
conducted with about 40 companies in 2022. Usability testing on the
electronic collection instrument will be conducted with up to 30
companies at the end of 2022 and will continue into 2023.
The 2023 AIES sample will be comprised of approximately 380,000
employer businesses to produce statistics that measure economic
activity. Businesses which reported business activity on Internal
Revenue Service tax forms 941, ``Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax
Return''; 944, ``Employer's Annual Federal Tax Return''; 1065 ``U.S.
Return of Partnership Income''; or any one of the 1120 corporate tax
forms will be eligible for selection.
The AIES will be collected using only electronic instruments.
Respondents will receive an email and/or letter notifying them of their
requirement to respond and how to access the survey.
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Responses will be due approximately 30 days from receipt. Select
businesses will receive a due date reminder via a letter or email prior
to the due date. Additionally, email follow-ups and up to three mail
follow-ups to nonrespondents will be conducted at approximately one-
month intervals. Selected nonrespondents will receive a priority class
mailing for the third follow-up if needed. Selected nonrespondents will
also receive follow-up telephone calls.
Paperwork Reduction Act
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is required
to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure
to comply with a collection of information subject to the requirements
of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) unless that collection of
information displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) control number. This action will integrate into the AIES the
following existing collections (listed with their corresponding OMB
control numbers): the Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) (0607-0013),
the Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS) (0607-0195), Service Annual
Survey (SAS) (0607-0422), the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM)
(0607-0449), the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) (0607-0782),
the Manufacturer's Unfilled Orders Survey (M3UFO) (0607-0561), and the
Report of Organization (0607-0444). In accordance with the PRA, 44
U.S.C., chapter 45, the Census Bureau will submit a request for
approval to the OMB for approval of the AIES.
Robert L. Santos, Director, Census Bureau, approved the publication
of this notification in the Federal Register.
Dated: October 28, 2022.
Shannon Wink,
Program Analyst, Policy Coordination Office, U.S. Census Bureau.
[FR Doc. 2022-24035 Filed 11-3-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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