Aug 26 -- Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, requests comments by October 25, 2024 regarding the 2024 Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES).
The Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) is designed to integrate and replace seven existing annual business surveys into one survey. The AIES provides the only comprehensive national and subnational data on business revenues, expenses, and assets on an annual basis. The AIES is designed to combine Census Bureau collections to reduce respondent burden, increase data quality, and allow the Census Bureau to operate more efficiently to reduce long term costs. The existing collections integrated into the AIES are the Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS), Service Annual Survey (SAS), Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES), Manufacturers' Unfilled Orders Survey (M3UFO), and the Report of Organization.
The AIES collects the following information from employer businesses in sample:
-- Business characteristics, including employment, operating status, organizational change, ownership information, and co-op status.
-- Business classification, including business activity, type of operation, and tax status.
-- Revenue, including sales, shipments, and receipts, taxes, contributions, gifts, and grants, products, e-commerce activity, and other sources of revenue.
-- Operating expenses, including purchased services, payroll, benefits, and other detailed operating expenses.
-- Capital expenditures and inventories.
-- Robotic equipment expenditures and usage.
In preparation for the 2024 AIES, we are looking ahead and evaluating options to reduce respondent burden. The Census Bureau is considering a reduction in the content that we collect from respondents. We have identified areas where we can reduce the content collected from respondents without significantly impacting data users. We are considering the consolidation of select items that pertain to Revenues, Operating Expenses, Inventories, and Capital Expenditures. We have identified the content we would like to reduce/consolidate and are currently working with key stakeholders to incorporate feedback. Our intention is that the reduction in content would have a positive impact on respondents and would be of minimal or no impact to both internal and external stakeholders, and the public.
All reduced/streamlined or combined content will be based on research, debriefing interviews, and feedback received from survey respondents during the 2023 collection period and any resulting reduction in respondent burden will be included in the revision request submitted to OMB after the conclusion of this 60-day comment period.
One of the key features of the AIES is the ability, with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval, to add and delete questions based on the importance of the economic situation at the time. The AIES may include new questions each year based on relevant business topics. Potential topics for such new questions could include technological advances including but not limed to artificial intelligence, machine learning, bioeconomy, financial technology robotics, exporting practices, energy, globalization, major event or catastrophe, and emerging societal trends. Any new questions or deletion of existing questions will be submitted to OMB for review as a revision with 30-day notice.
AIES:
https://www.census.gov/aies
Draft survey instruments and technical documentation requested of Census by AEAStat.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-19090