Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Annual Integrated Economic Survey, 19906-19907 [2023-06947]

Agencies

• Census Bureau
• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 4, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19906-19907]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06947]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Annual Integrated Economic Survey

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on November 21, 2022 during a 60-day comment period. 
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
    Title: Annual Integrated Economic Survey.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Form Number(s): This electronic collection has no form number.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, New Information Collection 
Request.
    Number of Respondents: Dress Rehearsal--8,470 and 50 debriefing 
interviews; Full AIES--384,940.
    Average Hours per Response: Dress Rehearsal--3 hours and 55 
minutes, Debriefing interviews--1 hour; Full AIES--3 hours and 23 
minutes.
    Burden Hours: Dress Rehearsal--33,206 hours, Debriefing 
interviews--50 hours; Full AIES--1,300,535 hours.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval to conduct the Annual Integrated 
Economic Survey (AIES) on an annual basis, beginning for survey year 
2023 (collected in calendar year 2024) and a preparatory Dress 
Rehearsal for the AIES for survey year 2022 (collected in calendar year 
2023). The AIES is a new survey designed to integrate and replace seven 
existing annual business surveys into one survey. The AIES will provide 
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 will collect 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, revenue by 
class of customer, taxes, contributions, gifts, and grants, products, 
and e-commerce activity
 Operating expenses, including purchased services, payroll, 
benefits, rental payments, utilities, interest, resales, equipment, 
materials and supplies, research and development, and other detailed 
operating expenses
 Assets, including capital expenditures, inventories, and 
depreciable assets
 Robotic equipment

    Additional topics of collections in the AIES include sources of 
revenue and/or expense for providers (e.g., hospitals and other 
businesses in the health industry) of select services such as inpatient 
days, outpatient visits to hospitals, patient visits for other selected 
health industries, revenue from telemedicine services, and expenses for 
electronic health records. Product data will be collected from 
businesses operating in manufacturing industries. Merchandise lines 
data will be collected from businesses operating in select retail 
industries. Detailed inventories will be collected for trucks, truck 
tractors, and trailers.
    The AIES may include new questions each year based on relevant 
business topics. Potential topics for such new questions could include 
technological advances, management and business practices, exporting 
practices, and globalization. Any new questions will be submitted to 
OMB for review using the appropriate clearance vehicle.
    Beginning in August of 2023, the Census Bureau plans to conduct a 
Dress Rehearsal for the AIES with approximately 8,470 companies. The 
Dress Rehearsal will collect survey year 2022 information. The Dress 
Rehearsal will be a large-scale test of the forms and procedures 
planned for the AIES. The burden estimate is 3 hours and 55 minutes per 
respondent. The Dress rehearsal will allow us to examine patterns of 
non-response and to determine what additional support respondents will 
need. Paradata gathered from respondents' interactions with the online 
collection instrument during the Dress Rehearsal will help refine our 
burden estimate. We will also compare the quality of responses received 
to historical data collected in the 7 surveys the AIES will replace. Up 
to 50, 1-hour debriefing interviews with respondents will also be 
conducted.
    To minimize the burden imposed on most respondents already in 
sample for the seven annual surveys the AIES will replace, we will use 
the AIES responses from companies that participate in the Dress 
Rehearsal to satisfy their reporting requirement for the annual 
survey(s) for which they are in sample for the 2022 survey year. Given 
that the AIES Dress Rehearsal will be conducted during the same 
calendar year as we will be conducting the 2022 Economic Census, we may 
use the AIES Dress Rehearsal to supplement Economic Census responses, 
pursuant to title 13 U.S.C. 193.
    After conclusion of the Dress Rehearsal, and based on refinements 
made to forms and procedures, the Census Bureau will begin conducting 
the full-scale AIES in 2024, collecting survey year 2023 information. 
The AIES will select a stratified sequential random sample of 
approximately 384,940 companies from a frame of approximately 5.4 
million companies

[[Page 19907]]

constructed from the BR, which is the Census Bureau's master business 
list.
    The AIES covers domestic, nonfarm employer businesses with 
operations during the survey year. Non-employer businesses are not 
within the scope of this new AIES. The Census Bureau will submit a 
separate request for approval to collect data from non-employer 
businesses, if it is determined that a collection is needed to produce 
those estimates. Businesses which reported business activity on 
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms 941, ``Employer's Quarterly 
Federal Tax Return''; 944, ``Employer's Annual Federal Tax Return''; 
1065 ``U.S. Return of Partnership Income''; or any one of the 1120 
corporate tax forms will be eligible for selection.
    Respondents will receive an email and/or letter notifying them of 
their requirement to respond and how to access the survey. Responses 
will be due approximately 30 days from receipt. Select businesses will 
receive a due date reminder via a letter or email prior to the due 
date. Additionally, email follow-ups and up to three mail follow-ups to 
nonrespondents will be conducted at approximately one-month intervals. 
Selected nonrespondents will receive a priority class mailing for the 
third follow-up if needed. Selected nonrespondents will also receive 
follow-up telephone calls.
    The AIES will replace the ARTS, AWTS, SAS, ASM, ACES, M3UFO, and 
the Report of Organization for survey year 2023, at which time the 
Census Bureau will officially sunset these programs. The ASM and the 
Report of Organization completed their final year of data collection in 
survey year 2021. ACES, ARTS, AWTS, SAS, and M3UFO will complete their 
final year of data collection in survey year 2022.
    The Census Bureau will submit a revision request to OMB prior to 
conducting the full-scale AIES to finalize any details presented in 
this request that may change.
    Estimates currently published in ARTS, AWTS, SAS, ASM, and ACES 
will be produced as part of the AIES and expanded to include 
subnational data across the economy. Previously, the ASM 
(manufacturing) was the only annual survey being integrated into the 
AIES that produced subnational data. The AIES will produce subnational 
data for manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and service sectors if 
quality standards are met. The AIES information previously collected on 
the Report of Organization will continue to be used to update the 
Census Bureau's BR, and the AIES data previously collected on the M3UFO 
will continue to be used for the Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, 
and Orders (M3) Survey benchmarking purposes. Data users will be able 
to access the AIES estimates through the use of visualizations, CSV 
files, data.census.gov, and the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), 
which is an online database maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of 
St. Louis.
    Private businesses, organizations, industry analysts, educators and 
students, and economic researchers have used the data and estimates 
provided by the ARTS, AWTS, SAS, ASM, and ACES collections for 
analyzing and conducting impact evaluations on past and current 
economic performance, short-term economic forecasts, productivity, 
long-term economic growth, market analysis, tax policy, capacity 
utilization, business fixed capital stocks and capital formation, 
domestic and international competitiveness trade policy, product 
development, market research, and financial analysis. Trade and 
professional organizations have used the estimates to analyze industry 
trends and benchmark their own statistical programs, develop forecasts, 
and evaluate regulatory requirements. Government program officials and 
agencies have used the data for research, economic policy making, and 
forecasting.
    Based on the use of the data of the existing collections, estimates 
produced from the AIES will serve as a benchmark for Census Bureau 
indicator programs, such as the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and 
Food Services (MARTS), the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS), 
Manufacturers' Shipments Inventories & Orders (M3), Monthly Wholesale 
Trade Survey (MWTS), and the Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). Like the 
previous collections, the AIES will provide updates to the Longitudinal 
Research Database (LRD), and Census Bureau staff and academic 
researchers with special sworn status will continue to use the LRD for 
micro data analysis. The Census Bureau will also continue to use 
information collected in the AIES to update and maintain the 
centralized, multipurpose BR that provides sampling populations and 
enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic surveys and 
censuses.
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will continue to use the 
estimates to derive industry output for the input-output accounts and 
for the gross domestic product (GDP). The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS) will continue to use the data as input to its Producer Price 
Index (PPI) and in developing productivity measurements; the Federal 
Reserve Board (FRB) will continue to use the data to prepare the Index 
of Industrial Production, to improve estimates of investment indicators 
for monetary policy, and in monitoring retail credit lending; the 
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to use 
the data to estimate expenditures for the National Health Accounts and 
for monitoring and evaluating healthcare industries; and the Department 
of the Treasury will continue to use the data to analyze depreciation 
and to research economic trends.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: The AIES collection is authorized by title 13 
U.S.C. 131, 182, and 193. Response to the AIES is mandatory per 
sections 224 and 225 of title 13 U.S.C.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering the title of the collection.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-06947 Filed 4-3-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P