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CENSUS OF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES

PURPOSE

To provide periodic and comprehensive statistics about construction establishments and building, repair, subcontracting and other construction-related activities. The United States Code, Title 13, requires this census and provides for mandatory responses.

COVERAGE

All establishments, such as contractors and builders, engaged in residential and nonresidential building; heavy construction, such as highways and powerplants; and special building trades, such as plumbing and demolition (SIC Division C).

CONTENT

All establishments with payroll report basic information, including kind of business, type and state location of construction projects, value of work done,work subcontracted, employment, payroll, cost of materials and fuel, and value added. Starting in 1987, "value of work done" replaced "receipts" as the primary measure of construction activity.

Selected establishments report additional information, including fringe benefits, assets, capital expenditures, depreciation, inventories, and certain rental expenses and purchased services. Nonemployer data are limited to kind of business and total receipts.

FREQUENCY

Data collection begins in December of the census calendar year and responses are due within about 8 weeks. Reported data are for activities taking place during the census year. The census is conducted every 5 years since 1967, for years ending in "2" and "7." Limited censuses were taken between 1930 and 1940.

METHODS

A mail-out/mail-back census of establishments with payroll using one of two forms that differ in scope and detail; plus administrative record data for nonemployers. All multi-establishment companies, and large single-establishment employers with annualized payroll above a size cutoff receive a standard form requesting basic and additional information. A sample of single-establishment firms below the payroll cutoff receive either a standard form or a short form requesting only basic information. The sample is selected using a stratified sampling procedure with strata reflecting kind of business, geographic location, and payroll size.

PRODUCTS

Preliminary Industry Series reports contain the earliest census results and provide summary national statistics for each 4-digit industry about 15 months after the census year. These reports contain tables of the value of construction work by type of construction, and comparisons of current and previous census statistics.

Industry Series reports present detailed national and state-level data for employer establishments by industry about 27 months after the census year. Data are classified by type of construction and kind of business, and include key items from three previous censuses. The summary report includes data for non-employer establishments.

Geographic Area Series reports present selected statistics for 9 multi-state areas about 36 months after the census year. General statistics are presented for states and metropolitan statistical areas with more than 500,000 people. Reports include limited data for non-employers.

The Subject Series report presents selected data (number of establishments, number of proprietors and working partners, and total employment) for employer and non-employer establishments, classified by industry and legal form of organization about 30 months after the census year.

USES

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, since 1991, has benchmarked current value of new construction statistics to the census of construction for use in quarterly Gross Domestic Product statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the data for industry characteristic analysis. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration uses the data for planning and policy decisions.

Trade associations use the data for market analysis and characteristics of association members. Trade publications use the data to publish market analysis for specific construction sectors. A distributor of electrical supplies used the data to determine receipts of electrical contractors by state and to examine trends in payments for materials and supplies.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Provides the only source of establishment-based construction statistics for each state and major metropolitan area.

Value of New Construction Put in Place

Census Nonemployer Statistics

Enterprise Statistics

You are here: Economic Programs Overview Construction Census of Construction Industries

Last revised: Tuesday, 02-Aug-2011 18:06:31 EDT