Census Bureau Solicits Commments on the Annual Survey of Manufactures

What is the Annual Survey of Manufactures?

In Census years ending in "2" and "7", the Census Bureau mails and collects the ASM as part of the Economic Census. In other years, the ASM is mailed and collected as a stand-alone survey. This survey is an integral part of the Federal Government's statistical data on U.S. manufacturers. The survey provides data at the two- through six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) levels. It also provides geographic data by state at a more aggregated industry level.

What Data Does the ASM Capture?

The ASM furnishes up-to-date estimates of employment and payroll, hours and wages of production workers, value added by manufacture, cost of materials, value of shipments by product, inventories, and expenditures for both plant equipment and structures. The survey provides valuable information to private companies, research organizations, and trade associations. Industry makes extensive use of the annual figures on product shipments at the U.S. level in its market analysis, product planning, and investment planning. The ASM data are used to benchmark and reconcile monthly and quarterly data on manufacturing production and inventories.

What Changes are Proposed to the ASM?

With the 2018 ASM, the Census Bureau plans to make changes to the Long Form, Short Form, and Survey design for this data collection. Note that the Long Form will add a new Special Inquiry on basic robotic use in manufacturing to gauge the prevalence of robotics use in the manufacturing sector across different geographies and by firm size.

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• Posted by: Damon Jones
• Posted in: LMI Central