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U.S. Business Investment in Capital Goods
Totals $870 Billion in 1997, Census Bureau Reports
U.S. businesses invested $870.2 billion in new and used capital goods in
1997, according to a report released on the Internet today by the Commerce
Department's Census Bureau.
The report, Annual Capital Expenditures: 1997, ACE/97, defined
capital goods as items with an expected use that exceeds one year and
which are ordinarily depreciated by businesses. They include buildings and
other structures, machinery and equipment, furniture, computers and
vehicles.
Businesses with one or more employees spent $770.8 billion, or 89
percent of the 1997 total spending on capital goods. Nonemployer
businesses spent $99.4 billion on new and used capital goods.
Other highlights for these businesses with employees were:
- Manufacturing led all industry sectors in capital goods expenditures,
spending $192.3 billion or 25 percent of total expenditures. Within
manufacturing, durable goods industries spent $108.3 billion, or 56
percent of the manufacturing total. The communications equipment and
electronics components industry was the biggest spender within durable
goods at $27.7 billion, accounting for about a fourth of this total.
Nondurable goods industries spent $83.9 billion on capital goods. Within
nondurable goods industries, the chemical products industry (excluding
drugs) was the largest investor at $19.9 billion.
- Within the services sector, the industry groups with the highest
capital expenditures were automotive and truck rental and leasing services
($30.0 billion), hospitals ($22.9 billion) and membership organizations
($12.9 billion). The services sector ranked second in total spending on
capital goods at $165.1 billion.
- The finance sector spent $91.3 billion for capital goods.
Nondepository credit institutions and commercial banks accounted for 86
percent of this sector's spending.
- The communications services sector spent $68.4 billion, with telephone
and other communications services accounting for 83 percent of this total.
The report shows capital investment spending by nonfarm businesses for
structures and equipment in 97 separate industry categories. The data are
used to identify trends in capital expenditures, analyze business asset
depreciation and improve estimates of capital stock for productivity
analysis.
The data in this report are subject to sampling variability, as well as
nonsampling error. Sources of nonsampling error include errors of
response, nonreporting and coverage. Further details concerning survey
design, methodology and data limitations are contained in the full report.
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The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
