# Presentation: 085821

## Slide 1

## Slide 2

**Notes:**
The Census Bureau publishes a wide variety of statistics about business.  Some of the statistics that make the news include--

## Principal Economic Indicators

**  ****Manufacturing and Trade:  Inventories and Sales**
-   Monthly Wholesale Trade
-   Manufactures’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders
**Advance M3**
**  ****Housing Starts**
-   Value of New Construction Put in Place
-   Housing Completions
-   New Homes Sold and for Sale
**  ****US International Trade in Goods and Services**
-   Quarterly Financial Report (two releases)
-   Housing Vacancies

***Principal Economic Indicators***

**Notes:**
■  Monthly retail sales,
■  Manufacturers shipments, inventories and orders
■  International Trade in Goods and Services...
■  These are some of what we call the Principal Economic Indicators

## Surveys vs Census

***Economic Census ***
- Every 5 years   ***(years ending in 2 & 7)***
- Industry/product detail
- Detailed Geography

***Economic Surveys***
- Annual, quarterly,    monthly
- Limited detail
- Mostly national

**Notes:**
But the surveys that make the best news for their frequency and timeliness are not necessarily the same ones that provide all of the details needed for many practical businesses decisions.

While we have a number of surveys that provide annual, quarterly and monthly data, they mostly have limited industry detail, and they mostly tell us only what is going on in the nation as a whole.

Fortunately, once every 5 years, we have a much larger survey we call the Economic Census.  The census provides us with much greater detail about specific industries and about the products they produce or sell.

## Economic Census Geography

***Economic Census Geography***

- U.S.
-  States
-  MSA's
-  Counties
-  Places of 2,500+ Inhabitants
-  ZIP Codes

**Notes:**
And in the census we can get information not only for the U.S. as a whole, but we can also examine states, metropolitan areas, counties, cities, and to a limited extent, ZIP Codes.

## Economic Census Coverage

**Notes:**
The Economic Census covers most, but not quite all, economic activity.  The Census Bureau conducts a separate Census of Governments and the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts a separate Census of Agriculture.  Taken together, these censuses cover about 98 percent of economic activity.

- 	“The Economic Census is indispensable to understanding America’s economy...”
- 	--**Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Federal Reserve Board of Governors**

**Notes:**
All of these statistics are very important to policy makers and business people.

Alan Greenspan has said that “The Economic Census is indispensable to understanding America’s economy”

## Public Sector Uses

-  Benchmarking
-  Tracking economic change
-  Attracting new businesses
-  Assisting business    development

**Notes:**
The Economic Census serves a number of important needs in the public sector.
■  Government agencies use the census as the foundation or benchmark for other statistics and surveys, from the Gross Domestic Product to monthly retail sales.
■  Policy-making agencies in government use census data to:
   ■  Measure and track in the local economies, and
   ■  Analyze the impact of policies and economic programs
■  Local agencies use economic census data to focus efforts to attract new business and retain existing firms, and to assist entrepreneurs in business development.

- “Sound and timely economic
- data are the fuel that powers
- business decision making...”
-  --**Thomas J. Donohue, President,**
**United States Chamber of Commerce**

**Notes:**
These data are not just for government use.  The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has remarked that "Sound and timely economic data are the fuel that powers business decision making..."

## Private Sector Uses

**Study your industry**
- 	Market share
- 	Product trends
- 	Strategic planning

**What’s my share?**
**How does my firm compare?**

**Notes:**
Businesses are especially important as data users because it is they who provide the data in the first place.

First, firms can look at their own industry.  A firm can compare its own statistics with figures for the industry,
computing market share and evaluating its own growth and product relative to the competition.

## Private Sector Uses

**Study your industry**
- 	Market share
- 	Product trends
- 	Strategic planning
**Study business markets**
- 	Site locations
- 	Sales territories
- 	Forecasting sales

**Where are my customers? suppliers?  competitors?**

**Notes:**
Second, firms use census data in business-to-business marketing.  Manufacturers and distributors that sell their products to or through other businesses use the economic census to study those markets, and then apply what they have found out in
         Locating plants, warehouses, and stores; and
         Laying out sales territories;
         Making sales forecasts.

■  Of course, businesses engaged in marketing to household consumers (B-to-C instead of B-to-B), make many of these same types of decisions using data from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing.

## Private Sector Uses

**Study your industry**
- 	Market share
- 	Product trends
- 	Strategic planning
**Study business markets**
- 	Site locations
- 	Sales territories
- 	Forecasting sales
**Evaluate investments**
- 	Estimate market size
- 	Data for loan applications

**Notes:**
Third, firms use census data to evaluate investment opportunities.  This can be especially important to small businesses if they want someone else to invest in their business, as when they apply for a loan.  Even if the the owner of a small shop knows his or her markets and the competition enough to run day-to-day operations, that owner may sometime need to convince someone else--like a bank's loan officer or a venture capitalist--just how good the business opportunity is.  Census figures on the market might just win the day.

## Economic Census Table

***Economic Census Table***

**Data classified by industry**

**Notes:**
When we present data from the Economic Census, we classify the data by industry or kind-of-business.

## NAICS

***NAICS***

**North **
**American**
**Industry **
**Classification **
**System**

**Notes:**
The scheme used in that classification is the new North American Industry Classification System, a scheme that replaced the old Standard Industrial Classification (or SIC) system as of 1997.  NAICS (which rhymes with "snakes") was defined as a joint project of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

## Assembling Time Series

- SIC      1987  1992   (1997)
- NAICS                      1997  2002  2007

**Notes:**
Data prior to 1997 were published based on SIC.  All data for 2002 and future years will be based on NAICS.  Only for 1997 do we have some overlap between the two systems.  Most 1997 data were published by NAICS, but selected national and state data were also published by SIC to facilitate the transition.

## www.census.gov

***www.census.gov***

**Notes:**
So let's see just what the Economic Census can tell us about one particular area.  We start with the Census Bureau home page at www.census.gov, and find, next to the Business heading, a link to the Economic Census.

## Slide 17

**Notes:**
There are a lot of data here.  Let's go to the box with data for all sectors and select 1997 data by NAICS.

## Slide 18

**Notes:**
In one click we have national data
<<click on the down arrow next to Select a metro area>>

## Slide 19

**Notes:**
And in another we can select the Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula
metropolitan area, and click on GO.

## Slide 20

**Notes:**
We can see that the sectors with the highest receipts, payroll, and employment are Manufacturing and Retail Trade.  For more detail, can drill down into any sector.  Let's take a closer look at Retail Trade. 
<<Click on down arrow next to 44-45 Retail Trade>>

## Slide 21

**Notes:**
<<Click on down arrow next to 44-45 Retail Trade>>
This page gives us the 12 subsectors within Retail Trade, and let's us drill down to individual industries.  Let's look at Motor vehicle dealers.
<<Click on down arrow next to 441>>

## Slide 22

**Notes:**
Here we have it:  New car dealers, used car dealers, RV dealers, Motor cycle dealers.
■  We see that there were 44 used car dealers with 34 million in sales.  Note that I said 34 million, not 34 thousand, because the whole column of sales figures is already expressed in thousands.
■  Now, if we look at the fine print at the top to the table, we see that this table includes only establishments that have paid employees.  Nonemployers are shown separately, but fortunately, they are only a click away.
<<click on Nonemployers>>

## Slide 23

**Notes:**
On this special page comparing nonemployers and employers we can find this area's used car dealers,
■  and in the righthand columns we can see again that the 44 employers had 34 million in sales.
■  The dark shaded columns show the nonemployers not included in that figure:  145 dealers with 17 million in sales.  The fact that nonemployers had sales half as large as the employers, making up about a third of the total, shows how important nonemployers are in the used car industry.
■  Looking at all retail trade, nonemployers account for 76 million out of the 2.9 billion total for all taxable firms, or less than 3 percent.
Now we go back to the more detailed data for employers.

## Slide 24

**Notes:**
On this special page comparing nonemployers and employers we
can find this area's used car dealers,
■  and in the righthand columns we can see again that the 44
   employers had 34 million in sales.
■  The dark shaded columns show the nonemployers not included
   in that figure:  145 dealers with 17 million in sales.  The
   fact that nonemployers had sales half as large as the
   employers, making up about a third of the total, shows how
   important nonemployers are in the used car industry.
■  Looking at all retail trade, nonemployers account for 76
   million out of the 2.9 billion total for all taxable firms,
   or less than 3 percent.
Let's say we want to actually work out these figures.  At the bottom of most of these pages is a link to data in a format for downloading.  This particular one would take us to the American FactFinder system, which, unlike these simple static pages, is a sophisticated database system with data selection and specific download options.

## Slide 25

**Notes:**
But if the data you want to download is on the page you are looking at, there may be a simpler solution.  Here, I have returned to the broadest summary of data for this area.  We are going to save this page as a web page to our own computer.
       <<click on "File">>

## Slide 26

**Notes:**
We use our browser's "File...Save As" feature...

## Slide 27

**Notes:**
..to save this page to our own computer, leaving it in html format.

Now we open our spreadsheet software.

## Slide 28

**Notes:**
Excel does a really good job of reading in web pages and letting them look not a lot different from the way they looked on the web.  But now we can make calculations.

## Slide 29

**Notes:**
I have separately imported the same data from the U.S. page, and have copied the Sales and Receipts column from the U.S. page to the spreadsheet with this metro area's data.
I have also added a column showing this metropolitan area as a percent of the U.S.
Manufuring here represents 15 hundredths of a percent of the national total
Retailing here represents 11 hundredths of a percent of the U.S.
Separately, I calculated that the Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula metro area accounted for 13 hundredths of a percent of the population in 2000.

There is one figure on this page that is really out of line: Taxable Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation accounts for over a full percent of the national total.  The aggregate receipts are not that great--902 million, making it only the fourth largest sector total, well behind manufacturing and retailing--but the share of the US is quite striking.

(So what is the artistic or cultural attraction that is booming in Biloxi?)

## Slide 30

**Notes:**
A similar analysis within the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector shows that the outstanding industry is gambling--specifically Casinos.  This metro area accounts for over 5.5 percent of the national receipts from casinos, not counting casino hotels.

## Slide 31

**Notes:**
Back to the web page...
       One of the frustrations users frequently report is that most Economic Census data do not include totals for all industries.  So let's see what else may be available to us.
       <<click on the Economic Census logo>>

## Slide 32

**Notes:**
In the list of six datasets available for all sectors is the Survey of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.
       <<click on Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses>>

## Slide 33

**Notes:**
Once again, the national data come up first, from which we can select a metropolitan area...
       <<click on the down arrow next to "Select metro area">>

## Slide 34

**Notes:**
Specifically "Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula"
       <<click GO>>

## Slide 35

**Notes:**
And the result shows us the distribution of minority-owned business, both employers (in the right four columns) and all businesses including nonemployers.
    The largest minority category in this area, in terms of receipts, is Asian and Pacific Islander-owned businesses.
    What I want you to notice, though, is that this page gives a total across all industries, something not included in the regular Economic Census pages.  The reference year is the same.  The scope of industries in this survey is slightly larger than that of the Economic Census, but these figures still give you total private employment and receipts figures you don't get elsewhere.

## Slide 36

**Notes:**
So let's see what other jewels the Economic Census page has for us.
  “1997 and 1992 data by SIC” catches my eye.
          <<click on 1997 and 1992 data by SIC>>

## Slide 37

**Notes:**
Comparative Statistics are very handy because they allow us to assess growth.
There is more to this than just comparing 1997 publications and 1992 publications, because all 1992 data were classified according to the Standard Industrial Classification or SIC system.  1997 data were published mostly on the new NAICS basis, but for this one publication, 1997 data were reclassified according to the old system so that we could make 1992 to 1997 comparisons.
Unfortunately, there is no metro area menu here.  These data were published only for the U.S. and states.

## Slide 38

**Notes:**
There is another important tool on the Economic Census page I want to draw your attention to.  Under the box outlined in red is the “Industry Statistics Sampler”.  We can type in a key word or NAICS code.  Let’s enter “software” and click NAICS Search.

## Slide 39

**Notes:**
This brings up a list of index entries and the industries associated with each.  
Let’s take a closer look at the data available for Software Publishers by clicking on its NAICS code.
<<click on 511210>>

## Slide 40

**Notes:**
This display shows the applicable NAICS hierarchy, lists the paragraph-style definition of the industry, and presents the applicable part of the Bridge between NAICS and SIC—which shows, in this case, that this NAICS corresponds directly to one SIC code, for complete comparability.
  Lower down on the page are state data.
<<click on States>>

## Slide 41

**Notes:**
Here the states are presented in rank order based on the total sales.

## Slide 42

**Notes:**
Toward the bottom of the same page are links to other data from 1997, in both PDF reports and “drill-down” hypertext tables.
Also shown are links to other Census Bureau programs with data for this industry, sources for more recent data and, in some cases, characteristics beyond the scope of the Economic Census for most industries, like capital expenditures.

## Slide 43

**Notes:**
There is another way we can look up these data sets that refer to years more recent than 1997.  On the Economic Census main page, under “Latest Results” is a link to other data 1998-2001.

## Slide 44

**Notes:**
This table of “Programs with national and subnational data” lists 8 programs, and, on the right, links directly to data -- where available -- for states, metro areas, counties, cities, and ZIP codes.

## www.census.gov

***www.census.gov***

**Notes:**
That table is so important, we present it in more than one place.  
From the Census home page you can click on the main heading Business.

## Slide 46

**Notes:**
And here find the same table of economic statistical programs with subnational data.
One of those programs with unique content is the Statistics of U.S. Business.
<<click on the 2000 in the U.S. column, in the row for Statistics of U.S. Business>>

## Slide 47

**Notes:**
This is the most comprehensive source of information about small business.  Firms are classified by the number of employees in the entire enterprise.  Data include total employment and payroll.  You can see, for example, that about half of the 114 million employees in all firms are in 17,000 firms with 500 or more employees (almost 57 million).  There are millions of firms with under 10 employees, but there aggregate impact is much smaller.
These data are also shown, in somewhat less detail, by year, by state, and by industry.  Metro area data can also be obtained in a downloadable spreadsheet.

## Slide 48

**Notes:**
Another source of data for metropolitan areas is County Businesses Patterns, even though we wouldn't have guessed from the title.
    We can go straight to the data if we click on the year in the appropriate data cell.
<<click on 2000 in the metro column in the row for County Business Patterns>>

## Slide 49

**Notes:**
We click the GO button next to “Metro Business Patterns” to select by MSA

## Slide 50

**Notes:**
And pick out Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula
       <<click on Submit>>

## Slide 51

**Notes:**
The MSA Business Patterns are formatted a little differently from the economic census pages, but much of the same functionality is still there.
You can click on one of the "Detail" buttons on the left to go to finer industry breakdowns, much like the down arrow on the census pages.
What is most significantly different is that there are no sales or receipts figures.
County Business Patterns has data on employment, payroll, and the number of establishments, like the census, but only the census has sales or receipts.

## www.census.gov

***www.census.gov***

**Notes:**
To this point we have been talking about a metropolitan area, but if we had been focusing on a particular county, we could have taken advantage of a special tool on the census website called "State and County QuickFacts"
       <<click on QuickFacts icon>>

## Slide 53

**Notes:**
We select Mississippi...
       <<click on Mississippi>>

## Slide 54

**Notes:**
...and immediately get a profile for the state.  We can select a county in any of three ways.
we could view a map and click on the county
and we could select with a pull-down menu
But let's say we don't know what county Biloxi is in, so we will Locate a county by place name
          <<click on Locate a county by place name>>

## Slide 55

**Notes:**
We can enter Biloxi (misspelling it).
       <<click on GO>>

## Slide 56

**Notes:**
...Then click on the county name to complete the selection.
       <<click on Harrison County>>

## Slide 57

**Notes:**
The Harrison county profile has a variety of statistics about people
       <<click on the slider bar on the right, toward the bottom>>

## Slide 58

**Notes:**
and business and geography.  The business statistics are not nearly as detailed as we were looking for, but at either the top or bottom of the page we can link to more data sets for the county.
       <<click Browse more data sets for Harrison County, Mississippi>>

## Slide 59

**Notes:**
 And here we have, for Harrison county, People QuickLinks, Business Quicklinks, and Geography QuickLinks.

Note that the Business QuickLinks include each of the data sets we have talked about today:
The Econommic Census by NAICS
the minority- and women-owned business data
County Business Patterns
Nonemployer Statistics
...plus the Consolidated Federal Funds report
Clicking on any of these links would take us to the same types of pages we visited earlier.
          <<click on NAICS under Economic Census>

## Slide 60

**Notes:**
And here we are back at the Economic Census drill-down tables.

## Slide 61

**Notes:**
Now I mentioned that we conduct an Economic Census once every 5 years.  The most recent one for which we now have data covers for 1997, so the next one is for 2002.

## 2002 Economic Census Key Dates

**Notes:**
The 2002 Economic Census covers economic activity during calendar year 2002.  Therefore, we waited until the end of the year to send out the forms.
Forms went to nearly all businesses with paid employees 
The due date was February 12, 2003, but many businesses requested extensions. 
We will spend the rest of 2003 following up with late respondents and assembling the data.
Publication of the results will start in early 2004 will continue over the following two years.

## Slide 63

**Notes:**
The first report is the Advance Report, with preliminary numbers at the national level for all sectors and subsectors.
Industry details start immediately thereafter and will be complete by the end of the year.
Geographic Area Series data, including data for states, counties, cities, and metro areas, will appear state by state and sector by sector from mid 2004 to mid 2005.
Thereafter we will publish a variety of more detailed and specialized reports, including reports on E-Commerce activity across all industries.
This schedule is part of the Guide to the 2002 Economic Census, which can be accessed from the main 2002 census page.
<<click on the 2002 census logo in the lower right>>

## Slide 64

**Notes:**
The Guide is linked in the upper left corner of key 1997 and 2002 census pages.
This page also presents an interesting link to “New Features of the 2002 Economic Census”.

## Slide 65

**Notes:**
This page reviews some of the same concepts we have already talked about, including new data on e-commerce and more extensive industry series reports.
  Of special interest is the dramatic expansion of the Survey of Business Owners.   This is the new name for the survey that in the past has produced data on minority- and women-owned businesses.  For 2002 there will also be U.S. and state level data on 
other owner characteristics like age, education, and disability, and 
home-based and family-owned businesses, as well as franchising and age of the business.

## Slide 66

**Notes:**
The 2002 Economic Census web page also links to promotional materials.
<<click Help promote the 2002 Economic Census>>

## Slide 67

**Notes:**
This page presents a lot of useful resources, and in the lower right under the link “2002 talking points” are links to slide shows like this one.

## Slide 68

**Notes:**
These 2002 links are also prominently featured at the top of the main Economic Census page.
I hope you have come to appreciate just how useful are the Economic Census and this website.

## ?? Questions ??

***??****** ******Questions****** ******??***

- For more information:
- Paul Zeisset  --  (301) 763-4151  -- pzeisset@census.gov

**Notes:**
Questions?

(To test your ability to apply some of the key points in this presentation, try the exercises at www.census.gov/epcd/ec02/exercises.htm.)