July 30 -- The Census Bureau has asked OMB to approved its plans for the Report of Organization for 2020-22 and invites the public comment by August 31, 2020.
The Census Bureau conducts the annual Report of Organization to update and maintain a centralized, multipurpose Business Register (BR). In particular, the survey supplies critical information on the organizational structure, operating characteristics, and employment and payroll of multi-location enterprises. The BR serves two fundamental purposes:
First and most important, it provides sampling populations and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic surveys and censuses, and it serves as an integral part of the statistical foundation underlying those programs. Essential for this purpose is the BR's ability to identify all known United States business establishments and their parent companies. Further, the BR must accurately record basic business attributes needed to control sampling and enumeration. These attributes include industry and geographic classifications, measures of size and economic activity, ownership characteristics, and contact information (for example, name and address).
Second, it provides establishment data that serve as the basis for the annual County Business Patterns (CBP) statistical series. The CBP reports present data on number of establishments, first quarter payroll, annual payroll, and mid-March employment summarized by industry and employment size class for the United States, the District of Columbia, island areas, counties, and county-equivalents. No other annual or more frequent series of industry statistics provides comparable detail, particularly for small geographic areas.
The 2020 – 2021 Report of Organization will request company-level information from a selection of multi-establishment enterprises, which comprises of roughly 42,000 parent companies and more than 1.4 million establishments. Report of Organization inquiries sent to each of the 42,000 multi-establishment enterprises will include inquiries on ownership or control by a domestic parent, ownership or control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign affiliates; research and development; company activities, such as employees from a professional employer organization and cooperative organization. Establishment inquiries include questions on operational status, mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and annual payroll of establishments. In addition to the multi-establishment enterprises, the survey panel will include approximately 5,000 large single-location companies that may have added locations during the year. The NC-99007 Form will collect data for the 5,000 single-location businesses.
The consolidated 2022 Economic Census/Report of Organization will request the same information described above from the entire universe of multi-establishment enterprises, which comprises of roughly 200,000 parent companies and more than 1.9 million establishments with industrial activities in-scope of the 2022 Economic Census.
The 2022 Report of Organization will request additional information from 15,000 multi-location establishments with industry classifications that are out-of-scope of the economic census. For those out-of-scope establishments, we will collect the following basic operating data for each listed establishment: end-of-year operating status, mid-March employment, first quarter payroll, and annual payroll. The Economic Census will collect data for all other establishments of multi-establishment enterprises, including those items above.
The mailing list for the Report of Organization in non-census years consists of a certainty component including large multi-establishment companies. In addition, a non-certainty sample of smaller multi-establishment companies with administrative data suggesting an organizational change is included. We expect these companies to have organizational changes such as new establishments, closed/sold establishments, change to industry classification, or changes to Federal Employer Identification Number. Finally, a sample of single-establishment companies with data suggesting it is part of a multi-establishment company is also included.
Report of Organization webpage:
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cos.html
Submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202007-0607-007 Click on IC List for forms, View Supporting Statement for purpose, uses, plans, methods.
Federal Register notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/30/2020-16543/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-to-the-office-of-management-and-budget-omb-for
Point of contact: Carrie A. Hill, Economic Statistical Methods Division, Census Bureau (301) 763-2536 Carrie.Anne.Hill@census.gov
For AEA members wishing to provide comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806