Appendix C

Characteristics of the Annual Economic Surveys

In response to the panel’s requests for information, the Census Bureau initially provided information on the annual surveys on a survey-by-survey basis, each in its own format. Although this was informative, it did not provide a sufficient basis for the panel to compare characteristics across all the surveys. Thus, the panel requested that the information be provided according to survey characteristics, uses, sampling, processing, and responsibilities, and we provided a matrix for the information.

The surveys by sector and the desired characteristics are listed below.

Surveys

Manufacturing

• Annual Survey of Manufactures
• Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders Survey
• Management and Organizational Practices Survey

Trade

• Annual Retail Trade Survey
• Annual Wholesale Trade Survey

Services

• Service Annual Survey

Multisector

• Business Expenses Supplement, conducted every 5 years in conjunction with the economic censuses
• Annual Capital Expenditures Survey
• Information and Communication Technology Survey

Demographic

• Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs

Business Register (sampling frame) Related

• Business and Professional Classification Survey
• Company Organization Survey (formally the Report of Organization Survey)
• County Business Patterns/Statistics of U.S. Businesses/Enterprise Statistics Program

Survey Characteristics

Uses of Data (internal and external)

• Brief explanation of uses for the data, the relevance, the economic indicators to which the survey contributes, etc.
• Key concepts the survey measures
• Data users
• Classification

Dissemination

• Group primarily responsible?
• Frequency
• Most recent reference period
• Most recent release dates
• What is the publication detail? (e.g., 2-, 3-, 4-digit NAICS [North American Industry Classification System] codes)
• How is the product announced? Is there a product announcement?

Sample Related

• Group primarily responsible?
• Target population. How defined?
• Sample maintenance
• What version of the Business Register is used for frame?
• What year of the economic census is used in frame construction?
• Is there any coordination with other surveys for sample?
• When is sample drawn?
• Frame size
• Sample design
• How are strata formed?
• Sample unit: establishment, company (enterprise), alternative reporting unit
• Sample size
• Definition of certainty (take-all) strata? Criteria?
• Percentage of sampled units in certainty strata?
• Percentage of employment or sales represented by certainty strata?

Data Collection Protocol

• Group primarily responsible?
• Is survey mandatory?
• Initial mode of contact (e.g., letter, phone)
• Modes of nonresponse follow-up (e.g., reminder letters, telephone)
• Maximum number of contact attempts? (e.g., mailouts, mail follow-ups, telephone calls)
• OMB [Office of Management and Budget] burden estimate: average time per form
• Annual burden estimate: cumulative over all respondents

Questionnaire

• Data collection mode(s) or sequence of modes
• Is questionnaire tailored for mode?
• Is questionnaire pretested?
• What steps are taken to ensure “user-friendly” questionnaire design to motivate participation?
• Edits that are built into the questionnaire during data collection (by type)

Fieldwork

• Group primarily responsible?
• Start date of collection period?
• Final date of collection period?
• Are there respondent groups, other than large/small units with special methods?
• Nonrespondents, total and by type (use categories that your surveys track)
• Percentage of sampled units that refuse by certainty and noncertainty strata
• Overall unit response rate
• Overall TQRR [total quantity response rate]
• TQRR by source
• What metrics are used to monitor the fieldwork?

Post Data Collection

• Types of rule-based edits performed during postdata collection
• Nonresponse adjustment
• Variance estimation methods
• Unit imputation methods
• Item imputation methods
• Analytical review procedures
• What type of estimator is used (estimation methodology)?
• Data confidentiality method (type)
• Quality suppression criteria (e.g., low response, high CV [coefficient of variation], high standard error)

• Percentage of suppressed cells for disclosure
• Percentage of suppressed cells for quality
• Total suppressed
• How are administrative data or other data sources used, if at all, in production of estimates?

Survey Cost: Full-Time Equivalents by Activity

• Program management
• Sample design
• Collection
• Data editing, imputation, review
• Dissemination
• Information technology support
• Grand total
• Total fiscal 2015 estimated cost

Appendix C in its entirety is available at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25098 under the Resources tab.