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County Business Patterns is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. The series is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses. The series serves various business uses such as analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. The data are also used by government agencies for administration and planning.
Most of the nation's economic activity is covered in this series. Data are excluded for self-employed persons, domestic service workers, railroad employees, agricultural production workers, most government employees, and employees on ocean-borne vessels or in foreign countries. Data are provided by industry in the following economic divisions: agricultural services, forestry, and fishing; mining; construction; manufacturing; transportation and public utilities; wholesale trade; retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services. Data are tabulated by industry as defined in the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual: 1987.
This series has been published annually since 1964 and at irregular intervals dating back to 1946. The comparability of data over time may be affected by definitional changes in establishments, activity status, and industrial classifications. For more details on these changes, see the section on Comparability With Other Data.
County Business Patterns basic data items are extracted from the Standard Statistical Establishment List, a file of all known single and multiestablishment companies maintained and updated by the Bureau of the Census. The annual Company Organization Survey provides individual establishment data for multiestablishment companies. Data for single establishment companies are obtained from various Census Bureau programs, such as the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Current Business Surveys, as well as from administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration.
The comparability of data with previous County Business Patterns series may be affected by the following definitional changes:
- the change from a "reporting unit" concept to establishment based data in 1974.
- the change in definition of "active" establishments in 1983.
- the change in industrial classification definitions, the most recent occurring in 1988.
In comparing the employment and payroll shown in this series with economic censuses data, the user should bear in mind that definitional and coverage differences may affect the direct comparison of data items. The definitions are detailed in the documentation of the various products. The economic censuses present data reported for individual establishments; whereas, County Business Patterns are based primarily on administrative records and data reported from current surveys. While every effort is made to resolve significant differences for the same establishment, differences are known to exist.
In accordance with U.S. Code, Title 13, Section 9, no data are shown that would disclose the operations of an individual employer. However, the number of establishments in an industry classification and the distribution of these establishments by employment-size class are not considered to be disclosures, and so this information may be released even though other information is withheld.
All data are tabulated from universe files and are not subject to sampling errors. However, the data are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences in interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data obtained; errors of collection, response, and coverage; and estimation of employers who reported too late to be included in the tabulations and for records with missing or misreported data.
The accuracy of the data is determined by the joint effects of the various nonsampling errors. No direct measurement of these effects has been obtained; however, precautionary steps were taken in all phases of collection, processing, and tabulation to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors.
Source: County Business Patterns 1994 & 1995 CD-ROM.