The Advance Quarterly Services Report is the earliest official measure of U.S. service economy performance. In an effort to meet our data users’ needs for more timely data, the Advance Quarterly Services Report is published approximately 50 calendar days after quarter’s end, beginning with the release of 2016 fourth quarter estimates on February 17, 2017. The Advance Quarterly Services Report contains a snapshot of quarterly estimates of revenue for selected sectors, subsectors, and industries. Our research found that these selected levels were good predictors of the estimates published in the full quarterly services report.
Estimates in the Advance Quarterly Services Report are based on data from the Quarterly Services Survey.
In addition to the current quarter advance estimates of revenue for selected industries, the Advance Quarterly Services Report also includes revised prior quarter estimates of revenue for all QSS industries. While not included directly in the Advance Quarterly Services Report, prior quarter estimates for source of revenue, expenses, inpatient days, and discharges are also revised concurrent with the release of the Advance Quarterly Services Report.
The Selected Service Total is the only seasonally adjusted estimate that is updated in the Advance Report. Seasonally adjusted estimates for all other industry levels are not revised with the release.
Yes, currently we are including seasonally adjusted revenue estimates for the Selected Services Total with the Advance Quarterly Services Report. We continue to research the feasibility of including additional seasonally adjusted estimates in future advance reports.
We continue to research the quality of other QSS series but there currently are no plans to publish data at more detailed levels than those currently in the report.
The Advance Quarterly Services Report is released approximately 50 calendar days following the end of the reference quarter at 10:00 AM. The release schedule for the Advance Quarterly Services Report and full Quarterly Services Report can be found at Complete Release Schedule.
Private sector data users and other government agencies both benefit from an earlier release of U.S. services data. The Advance Quarterly Services Report allows policymakers and private data users to make data-driven decisions sooner due to this high-level snapshot of economic data. In addition, the release also allows the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to incorporate services data into the second estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Prior to the implementation of the Advance Quarterly Services Report, Quarterly Services Survey estimates were incorporated in the third estimate of GDP.
The overall goal of the Advance Quarterly Services Report is to provide the earliest possible measures of U.S. service economy performance to all data users and to help the BEA produce the highest quality measures of GDP possible.
