Planning and
Organizing the
U.S. Economic Census
C. Harvey Monk, Jr.
Associate Director for Economic Programs
U.S. Census Bureau
Second International Workshop on Economic Census
Seoul, Republic of Korea
July 6 - 9, 2009
 Scope & Coverage
 Goals
 Processes &
Milestones
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July 6-9, 2009
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U.S. Economic Census
 Every
5 years for years ending in “2” and “7”
 Content
development in cooperation with
business and government
 Response
required by law
 Covers
27 million businesses, collects data from
4.4 million business locations
 FY
2008 is the data collection year
 Product
release begins in FY 2009
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July 6-9, 2009
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Economic Census Scope and Coverage
 Economic Census programs
Minerals
Construction
Manufactures
Wholesale
Retail
Transp, Comm, Utilities
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate
Services
Survey of Business Owners
Business Expenditures Survey
Economic Census of Puerto Rico, Guam,
Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands, American Samoa
Commodity Flow Survey (BTS partially funds)
 Covers 27 million business locations and 96% of economic activity
•
•
7 million with paid employees
20 million without paid employees
 Data for 1,060 NAICS industries
•
•
•
•
their inputs: labor, capital, purchased materials & services
what they produce & sell: 8,000 products & 3,500 different merchandise & service lines
who they sell to
where they are located: detailed subnational information
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July 6-9, 2009
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Census Coverage of GDP
Agriculture
Mining
Utilities
Construction
Manufacturing
Wholesale Trade
Retail Trade
Transportation & Warehousing
Information
Finance & Insurance
Real Estate & Rental and Leasing
Professional, Scientific & Technical Services
Management of Companies & Enterprises
Administrative & Waste Management Services
Educational Services
Health Care & Social Assistance
Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
Accommodation and Food Services
Other Services
Government
Source: www.bea.gov
1 [Covered by USDA]
1
2
5
11
21
22
23
31-33
42
44-45
13
6
7
2
48-49
51
52
5
8
12
53
54
55
56
61
62
71
72
81
92
7
2
3
1
7
1
3
2
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
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July 6-9, 2009
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Economic Census Costs
 2007
Economic Census costs expected to be
$513 million
 60% higher than 2002 costs of $320 million
 2012 Economic Census costs estimated to be
$695 million
 Higher costs related to expanded content,
maintaining response, and inflationary
increases associated with staff, postage and
contracted services that occur over a 6-year
period
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Goals
Provide the Nation with comprehensive and detailed
information about the changing structure of the U.S.
economy
• detailed industry and geographic data
• expanded content and coverage
Establish and maintain the statistical foundation for
continuing economic analysis by government and
business
• 3/4 of source data for our National Accounts
• benchmarks for composite measures of economic activity
• sample frame and benchmark for Census current economic
surveys
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Goals
(continued)
Extend Economic Census detail and coverage in areas
of special National interest
•
•
•
•
businesses owned by women and minorities
information on commodity movement
expenditures and expenses for service, manufacturing, retail,
wholesale and industries
economic census of Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern
Mariana and American Samoa
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Goals
(continued)

Improve timing of response for large companies
• Provided improved electronic reporting tools early
• Started mailing to large “L” companies in October 2007
• Started visiting 200 L companies in October 2007 to explain
census and introduce electronic reporting tools

Improve Response Rates
• Targeted additional follow-up activities for single units
• Escalated follow-up to reduce non-compliance
• Offered electronic reporting to business who receive standard
economic census forms
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Goals
(continued)

Improve internal efficiency of key operations
• Deployed new Business Register interactive routines to
improve clerical processing of economic census responses
• Consolidated microdata editing systems within a common
framework and increase use of editing best practices
• Put systems in place early to process census receipts through
microdata edit processing (front- and back-end edits)

Improve timeliness of statistical products
• Decided to disseminate all data products electronically
• Deployed tabulation and analysis systems for industry reports
in October 2008
• Replaced custom-coded table composition process with COTS
software
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Program Management



2007 Economic Census program comprised a complex set of
interrelated activities carried out over a span of nearly 6 years
Project charters were used to manage and carry out work that
entailed substantial development of new systems or substantial
revision/redevelopment to existing systems
Project management best practices were used that were
consistent with Census Bureau standards and guidelines. These
included:
•
•
•

Scalable Methodology for Project Management (commonly known
as the “Project Red Book”),
Census Software Process Improvement (CSPI) Program
Economic Programs Directorate’s Project Management
Environment.
Additionally, selected IT projects used variations of the Team
Software Process (TSP) and the Personal Software Process
(PSP)
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census
Major Processes
 Direction
- $29 million
 Content Determination and Design - $45 million
 Mail List Development and Mail-out - $39 million
 Collection and Processing - $280 million
 Publication and Dissemination - $120 million
»Total Cost $513 Million
Second International Workshop on Economic Census
July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Milestones
04/07
Advance mailing to 15,000 largest companies
09/07-12/07
Preparation and assembly of 4.4 million mailing packages
10/07-03/08
Run first wave of Economic Census promotional materials
11/07
Mail 400,000 forms to 1,200 largest companies
12/09-12/17
Mail Economic Census Single Units and remaining Multi Units
report forms
09/07
Business Help Site in production
12/10/07
Toll-free assistance and Electronic Reporting site goes into
production
02/12/08
Economic Census due date
03/08
Begin first of 3 form follow ups to delinquents
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census Milestones
05/08
Mail first wave (1.2 million) Survey of Business Owners forms
08/08
Special 4th follow up of delinquent large companies
09/08
National Processing Center units complete work
10/08
Complete initial tabulations for all NAICS sectors and begin
Head Quarters review
03/09
First Economic Census data product (Advance report)
05/09
Mail second wave (1.2 million) Survey of Business Owners forms
4Q/09
Industry series completed
2Q/11
Final product released
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July 6-9, 2009
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2007 Economic Census
Lifecycle Process Chart
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Direction
Content Determination and Design
Consultation with Users & Suppliers
Content Development
OMB Clearance
Forms Design (Layout)
Forms Printing
Mail List Development and Mailout
2006 Classification (Refile) Survey
Collection and Processing
Large (L-) Company Initial Mailout
Classification Form Initial Mailout
Other Initial Mailout (Balance of Forms)
Late Birth Mailings
Follow-up for Nonresponse
Data Capture & Processing
Publication and Dissemination
Macro-Analytical Review
Advance Report
Industry Series
Geographic Area Series
Subject Series
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July 6-9, 2009
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Direction
Began
10/2007 and ends 9/2010
Includes planning and support activities
necessary to conduct the census
Provides overall direction and
coordination for the planning, design,
collection, processing, and dissemination
Economic Planning & Coordination
Division is primarily responsible
Over 100 staff work on this full time
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July 6-9, 2009
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Content Determination/Design
Began
10/2004 and ended 4/2006
Activities include review of census
components
Meeting with stakeholders to assess and
determine content
Designing and cognitively testing forms
Printing more than 550 industry specific
forms
Second International Workshop on Economic Census
July 6-9, 2009
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Mail List Development & Mail-out
Began
10/2006 and ended 9/2008
Activities include developing computer
specifications, procurement and
processing administrative records
Labeling and assembling mailing
4.4 million business locations mailed
forms
• 550 different forms tailored to industry groups
• sample small businesses
• mail “classification forms” to 0.8M small businesses
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Collection and Processing
 Began
10/2007 and ended 2/2009
 Includes collection and clerical operations
conducted at our National Processing Center
including staff training, form check-in, data
capture, customer support, follow-up, and
data correction
 Also includes development, testing, and
maintenance of processing systems including
electronic reporting option
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July 6-9, 2009
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Collection Methods
Direct
collection
Electronic
Reporting
Administrative
Records Data
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Direct Collection
Oct ’07 - Large Companies, 800K Classification
Forms
 Dec 12 ’07 - Mail remainder of 4.7 MM mailout
 Feb 12 ’08 Forms due
 April 1 ’08 - First form follow-up
 May 1 ’08 - Second form follow-up
 June 1 ’08 - Third form follow-up
 July ’08 - Phone follow-ups begin
 August ’08 - Legal letters to single/multi units
 Sept ’08 - Remaining legal letters

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Receipts
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Electronic Reporting
Electronic reporting available to 3.6 million businesses
can report using 500 different report forms
• spreadsheet compatible (export/import)
• facilitates and simplifies reporting
• secure and encrypted
2007 Economic Census saw over 25% of
the total responses and more than 50%
of the large company responses collected
electronically
2012 plans call for an interactive web-based
application
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July 6-9, 2009
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Administrative Records
Extensive use of administrative record
data
• use IRS data in lieu of direct reporting for
- 3.1 million small employers
- 20.0 million businesses with no paid employees
- employment, payroll & receipts data for Survey
of Business Owners sample
• use IRS data for editing Economic Census
employment, payroll & receipts
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Publication and Dissemination
 Began
11/2007 and ends 9/2010
 Activities include all operations related to final
table review of tabulated data, development of
products, and dissemination of census results
 More than 1,700 census products will be
developed and delivered electronically via
American Fact Finder
 Products will profile industries, geographic
areas, and special subjects
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2007 Economic Census
Dissemination Schedule
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Questions ??
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