By Steve Latin-Kasper, NTEA Director of Market Data & Research
This article was published in the May 2018 edition of NTEA News.
Every five years, U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Economic Census — the official measure of the nation’s economy and businesses that serves as the statistical benchmark for current economic activity. It provides information on company locations, the country’s workforce, and trillions of dollars of sales by product and service type. Comprehensive information is generated for almost 1,000 different industries and thousands of geographic areas.
The Economic Census, which includes U.S. territories, will gather data from approximately 4 million business locations. Companies included are required by law under Title 13, Section 224, to respond. Coupled with the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (Title 18, Sections 3551, 3559 and 3571), Title 13 provides for penalties of up to $5,000 for failure to report, and $10,000 for intentionally providing false information.
The business community’s participation is essential to obtain reliable, comprehensive results that accurately represent the rapidly changing economy. Without the Economic Census, which is used to update Census Bureau’s master list of U.S. companies, vital information on changes in ownership and organizational structure of American businesses and industries would be missing.
In early May, all U.S. companies currently on the Census Bureau’s master list should receive a letter regarding the Economic Census. Respondents are required to use an online, secure portal to respond. The letter will include the website address, your authentication code, the due date and contact information for questions. Due dates may vary by economic sector, but in general, responses are required by June 12.
Starting with this Census, the North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) will be used. This is a comprehensive, market-based, hierarchical classification system for products (goods and services) that:
- is not industry-of-origin based but can be linked to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS);
- is consistent across the three North American countries; and
- promotes improvements in the identification and classification of service products across international classification systems, such as the Central Product Classification System of the United Nations.
The Census is important to the work truck industry because it is the only government publication that provides data for a number of truck body and equipment types. Data generated by the 2017 Census will be even more useful than before since there are more commercial truck equipment industry-specific codes in NAPCS than NAICS.
Note, a key piece of information in the letter mailed in early May is the burden estimate statement. Census Bureau predicts responding to the survey will take, on average, between 42 minutes and 5 hours, 36 minutes to complete, depending on your industry classification and business activity. For example, NTEA members defined as belonging in the wholesale sector of the U.S. economy won’t need as much completion time as manufacturer members because the manufacturer’s form includes substantially more product and materials detail.
Since it’s important to provide accurate information, per Title 13, most companies will find responding to the Census is not a one-person job. Typically, forms land on the desk of someone in the accounting department, which is a good place to start. But for questions related to product shipments and materials acquisition, help from purchasing and sales personnel will likely be requested.
For more industry market data, visit ntea.com/marketdata.
