The first tabulations from the latest economic census show six industry sectors with sales or receipts above $1 trillion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

     The preliminary data in the tabulations, titled, Advance Summary Statistics for the United States: 2002, were collected last year from more than 7 million business locations in over 1,000 industries.

     The sectors with the largest sales or receipts were:

• Wholesale trade ($4.4 trillion)

• Manufacturing ($3.8 trillion)

• Retail trade ($3.2 trillion)

• Finance and insurance ($2.6 trillion)

• Health care and social assistance ($1.2 trillion)

• Construction ($1.1 trillion)

     Close behind were the professional, scientific and technical services sector ($0.9 trillion) and the information sector ($0.9 trillion).

     The tabulations are the first in a series of more than 1,600 reports from the 2002 Economic Census that will be issued over the next two years. The reports will provide information on the number of business locations, shipments, sales or receipts, payroll and number of employees.

     Tabulations in the report cover 7 million U.S. businesses with paid employees. A report on the 17 million businesses without paid employees will be issued later this spring.

     Future reports will focus on industries in most sectors of the economy and provide information for states and local areas.

     The 2002 Economic Census uses the 2002 North American Industry Classification System and is the first Census Bureau program to implement these classifications.

     The 2002 Economic Census will supply data on new e-business industries such as electronic shopping, electronic auctions, wholesale electronic markets, Internet publishing and broadcasting and Web search portals. A new North American Product Classification System will provide the first information on services sold by selected service industries.

     The economic census dates back to 1810, when the census of population included questions on manufacturing. It has been conducted at five-year intervals since the 1950s.

     The data in the advance report are preliminary. Subsequent reports will update the information released today. Economic census data are subject to sampling and nonsampling error as the result of nonresponse, coverage problems, misreporting and processing errors.

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