Notice2022-27629
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Monthly Wholesale Trade 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
December 20, 2022
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 243 (Tuesday, December 20, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 243 (Tuesday, December 20, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77790-77791]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27629]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register on October 6, 2022 during a 60-day comment period.
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
Title: Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0190.
Form Number(s): SM4217-A, SM4217-E.
Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for an Extension,
without Change, of a Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 4,200.
Average Hours per Response: 7 minutes.
Burden Hours: 5,880.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests a three-year
extension of the Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS). The MWTS
canvasses firms primarily engaged in merchant wholesale trade that are
located in the United States, excluding manufacturers' sales branches
and offices (MSBOs). This survey provides the only continuous measure
of monthly wholesale sales, end-of-month inventories, and inventories-
to-sales ratios. The sales and inventories estimates produced from the
MWTS provide current trends of economic activity by kind of business
for the United States. Also, the estimates compiled from this survey
provide valuable information for economic policy decisions by the
government and are widely used by private businesses, trade
organizations, professional associations, and other business research
and analysis organizations.
Estimates from the MWTS are released in three different reports
each month. High level aggregate estimates for end-of-month inventories
are first released as part of the Advance Economic Indicators Report.
Second, the full Monthly Wholesale Trade Report containing both sales
and inventories estimates is released. Lastly, high level sales and
inventories estimates from the MWTS are also released as part of the
Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales (MTIS) report.
The MWTS sales estimates are also used as an input in the Monthly
Real Dollar Estimates of Wholesale Sales experimental data product,
first published on September 19, 2022, which is a supplement to the
MWTS report. The estimates were created from the nominal MWTS sales
series using product weights developed from existing Census Bureau data
releases and price indexes from the BLS. Within the report, real dollar
sales estimates and corresponding residuals are available for Total
Merchant Wholesalers, except Manufacturers' Sales Branches and Offices,
as well as the two 3-digit and eighteen 4-digit North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) wholesale subsectors. Monthly estimates
are available from January 2012 forward and are published with the MWTS
report each month.
As one of the Census Bureau's principal economic indicators, the
estimates produced by the MWTS are critical to the accurate measurement
of total economic activity of the United States. The estimates of sales
made by wholesale locations represent only merchant wholesalers,
excluding MSBOs, who typically take title to goods bought for resale
and sell to other businesses. The sales estimates include sales made on
credit as well as on a cash basis, but exclude receipts from sales
taxes and interest charges from credit sales.
The estimates of inventories represent all merchandise held in
wholesale locations, warehouses, and offices, as well as goods held by
others for sale on consignment or in transit for distribution to
wholesale establishments. The estimates of inventories exclude fixtures
and supplies not for resale, as well as merchandise held on
consignment, which are owned by others. Inventories are an important
component in the Bureau of Economic Analysis' (BEA) calculation of the
investment portion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Census Bureau publishes wholesale sales and inventories
estimates based on the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS), which has been widely adopted throughout both the public and
private sectors.
The Census Bureau tabulates the collected data to provide, with
measurable reliability, statistics on sales, end-of-month inventories,
and inventories-to-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers, excluding
MSBOs.
The BEA is the primary Federal user of data collected in the MWTS.
The BEA uses estimates from this survey to prepare the national income
and product accounts (NIPA), input-output accounts (I-O), and gross
domestic product (GDP) by industry. End-of-month inventories are used
to prepare the change in private inventories component of GDP. The BEA
also uses the Advance Economic Indicators Report to improve the
inventory valuation adjustments applied to estimates of the Advance
Gross Domestic Product. Sales are used to prepare estimates of real
inventories-to-sales ratios in the NIPAs, extrapolate proprietors'
income for wholesalers (until tax return data become available) in the
NIPAs, and extrapolate annual current-dollar gross output for the most
recent year in annual I-O tables, GDP-by-industry, and advance GDP-by-
industry estimates.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the data as input to its
Producer Price Indexes and in developing productivity measurements.
Private businesses use the wholesale sales and inventories data in
computing business activity indexes. Other government agencies and
businesses use this information for market research, product
development, and business planning to gauge the current trends of the
economy.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
Frequency: Monthly.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131 and 182.
This information collection request may be viewed at
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search
function and
[[Page 77791]]
entering either the title of the collection or the OMB Control Number
0607-0190.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-27629 Filed 12-19-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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