Census Product Update

March 19, 2009

First Data Released From the 2007 Economic Census

Preliminary data from the 2007 Economic Census is now available! The advance report is the first in a series of industry and geographic area data, including information for more than 1,000 communities not available from previous censuses. The report is made up of two data sets, Advance Summary Statistics for the United States: 2007 and Advance Comparative Statistics for the United States: 2007. These show the number of establishments, revenue (sales), payroll and number of employees at the national level for 101 industry groups based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Among the findings in this report:

• Wholesale trade, manufacturing, and retail trade remained the largest sectors in the U.S. economy.
• Manufacturers reported shipments of more than $5.3 trillion in 2007, an increase of more than $1.4 trillion from the $3.9 trillion reported in 2002.
• Food, petroleum and chemicals accounted for more than 56 percent of the growth in the manufacturing sector ($812 billion of the $1.4 trillion increase) from 2002 to 2007.
• The health care and social assistance sector continued to have the most employees with nearly 17 million in 2007, an increase of more than 12 percent from 2002.
• Among the service-related sectors, employees in the information sector earned the highest average payroll per employee in 2007 ($64,871). The accommodation and food services sector reported the lowest payroll per employee in 2007 ($14,649).