[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 50 (Monday, March 16, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13518-13519]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-05910]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Annual Survey of Manufactures.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0449.
    Form Number(s): MA-10000(L), MA-10000(S), NC-99530.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 68.000.
    Average Hours per Response: 2 hours and 32 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 172,540.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau has conducted the Annual Survey 
of Manufactures (ASM) since 1949 to provide key measures of 
manufacturing activity during intercensal periods. In census years 
ending in ``2'' and ``7,'' we mail and collect the ASM as part of the 
Economic Census covering the Manufacturing Sector.
    The ASM statistics are based on a survey that includes both mail 
and nonmail components. The mail portion of the survey consists of a 
probability sample that will be redesigned for the 2014 ASM using a 
methodology similar to the one that was used for the 2009 ASM. However, 
the industry strata for the 2014 ASM sample will be based on the 2012 
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which combines 
many of the six-digit codes in the Manufacturing Sector. For the 2009 
ASM, approximately 51,000 manufacturing establishments were selected 
from a frame of approximately 117,000 establishments. The frame 
contained all manufacturing establishments of multiunit companies 
(companies with operations at more than one location) and the largest 
single-location manufacturing companies within each industry. We expect 
the number of establishments in the 2014 ASM sample to be about the 
same as the number in the 2009 ASM sample. The 2009 ASM nonmail 
component contained approximately 211,000 small and medium-sized 
single-location companies. No data are collected from companies in the 
nonmail component. Data are imputed based on models that incorporate 
the administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the 
Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics (BLS). Though the nonmail companies account for nearly two-
thirds of the universe, they account for less than 7 percent of the 
manufacturing output.
    The Census Bureau plans to revise the information collected in 
several areas of the MA-10000 (L). The MA-10000 (L) is the only form 
the Census Bureau plans to revise. The first revision is to the 
inventory section of the form, which covers items 9, 10 and 11 of the 
MA-10000 (L). The primary objective of the revision to the inventory 
section is to improve reporting and to avoid confusion for respondents 
that do not use the Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) method of valuation for 
inventories. In previous reporting cycles, reporting on these items 
were filled with errors that revolved around non-LIFO respondents 
reporting data in the LIFO-related items due to misunderstanding what 
was being requested. After research, it was determined that grouping 
all of the LIFO-related items together and moving them to the end of 
the inventory section will greatly decrease confusion for the large 
majority of respondents that do not use the LIFO valuation method. The 
second revision is to remove the data collected for depreciation, which 
is item 16B of the MA-10000 (L). The removal of item 16B will simplify 
what respondents are required to report and will remove an item that 
does not have the supplemental variables that it needs for editing and 
imputation.
    This survey is an integral part of the Government's statistical 
program. Its results provide a factual background for decision making 
by the executive and legislative branches of the Federal Government. 
Federal agencies use the annual survey's input and output data as 
benchmarks for their statistical programs, including the Federal 
Reserve Board's Index of Industrial Production and the Bureau of 
Economic Analysis' (BEA) estimates of the gross domestic product. The 
data also provide the Department of Energy with primary information on 
the use of energy by the manufacturing sector to produce manufactured 
products. These data also are used as benchmark data for the 
Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, which is conducted for the 
Department of Energy by the Census Bureau. The Department of Commerce 
uses the exports of manufactured products data to measure the 
importance of exports to the manufacturing economy of each state. 
Within the Census Bureau, the ASM data are used to benchmark and 
reconcile monthly and quarterly data on manufacturing production and 
inventories.

[[Page 13519]]

    The ASM is the only source of complete establishment statistics for 
the programs mentioned above.
    The ASM furnishes up-to-date estimates of employment and payrolls, 
hours and wages of production workers, value added by manufacture, cost 
of materials, value of shipments by class of product, inventories, cost 
of employer's fringe benefits, operating expenses, and expenditures for 
new and used plant and equipment. The survey provides data for most of 
these items at the two- through six-digit NAICS levels. We also provide 
geographic data by state at a more aggregated industry level.
    The survey also provides valuable information to private companies, 
research organizations, and trade associations. Industry makes 
extensive use of the annual figures on product class shipments at the 
U.S. level in its market analysis, product planning, and investment 
planning. State development/planning agencies rely on the survey as a 
major source of comprehensive economic data for policymaking, planning, 
and administration.
    The Ownership or Control forms (NC-99530) will be used to update 
the Business Register, the basic input to the sampling frame for many 
of our current surveys. This enables us to update establishments in the 
Census Bureau's Business Register that are incorrectly identified as 
being single-establishment firms.
    Affected Public: Business or other for profit.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, sections 131, 182, 
224, and 225.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c58a8c97849a96b0a7a8acb6b6acaaab85aaa8a7eba0aab5eba2aab3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2b6462796a74785e49464258584244456b444649054e445b054c445d">[email protected]</span></a> or fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: March 11, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-05910 Filed 3-13-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P


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