Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM)
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About the Surveys
ANNUAL SURVEY OF MANUFACTURES (ASM)
PURPOSE
To provide key intercensal measures of manufacturing activity, products, and location for the public and private sectors. The ASM provides the best current measure of current U.S. manufacturing industry outputs, inputs, and operating status, and is the primary basis for updates of the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD). Census Bureau staff and academic researchers with sworn agent status use the LRD for micro data analysis.
COVERAGE
Manufacturing establishments with one or more paid employees or nonemployers that use leased employees for manufacturing are classified in NAICS sector 31-33.
CONTENT
The ASM provides statistics on employment, payroll, worker hours, payroll supplements, cost of materials, selected operating expenses, value added by manufacturing, capital expenditures, inventories, and energy consumption. It also provides estimates of value of shipments for 1,384 classes of manufactured products.
FREQUENCY
The ASM is conducted annually, except for years ending in 2 and 7, at which time ASM data are included in the manufacturing sector of the Economic Census.
METHODS
The Annual Survey of Manufactures includes approximately 50,000 establishments selected from the census universe of 328,500 manufacturing establishments. Some 20,000 establishments are selected with certainty, and some 30,000 other establishments are selected with probability proportional to a composite measure of establishment size. The survey frame is updated from two sources; Internal Revenue Service administrative records are used to include new single-unit manufacturers and the Company Organization Survey identifies new establishments of multi-unit firms.
PRODUCTS
Most data are available from the Internet and on CD-ROM. The principal publications are:
1.Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries: displays statistics at the 6, 4, and 3-digit NAICS levels and for total manufacturing.
2.Value of Products Shipments: displays statistics by 7-digit product class.
3.Geographic Area Statistics: Statistics for All Manufacturing by State: displays data for each state by selected 3- and 4-digit NAICS levels.
4.Geographic Area Statistics: Supplemental Statistics for the United States and States: displays data for each state at the 2-digit NAICS level.
Targeted release dates are 12 months from the end of the reference period.
USERS
Bureau of Economic Analysis uses ASM data to prepare annual updates of the GNP and GNP weight deflators, the annual input-output (I/O) tables, and to the private inventories, producer’s equipment and software components (PES) of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Bureau of Labor Statistics uses ASM data to calculate annual productivity series, updating producer price indexes, and calculate weights when new components are added.
Federal Reserve Board uses ASM data to prepare the Index of Industrial Production.
International Trade Administration designs and evaluates the export development program, evaluates and forecasts future industrial activity.
The Census Bureau benchmarks current data on manufacturing shipments and inventories.
State and local agencies use ASM data for economic policymaking and forecasting.
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