[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 176 (Thursday, September 10, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55818-55820]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-19991]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Annual Survey of Manufactures

AGENCY: Census Bureau, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information 
collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information 
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The 
purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the 
proposed revision of the Annual Survey of Manufactures, prior to the 
submission of the information collection request (ICR) to OMB for 
approval.

DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed 
information collection must be received on or before November 9, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments by 
email to [email protected]. Please reference Annual Survey of 
Manufactures in the subject line of your comments. You may also submit 
comments, identified by Docket Number USBC-2020-0024, to the Federal e-
Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. All comments received 
are part of the public record. No comments will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov for public viewing until after the comment period 
has closed. Comments will generally be posted without change. All 
Personally Identifiable Information (for example, name and address) 
voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do 
not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or 
protected information. You may submit attachments to electronic 
comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF file formats.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
specific questions related to collection activities should be directed 
to Marlo Thornton, Assistant Division Chief, Manufacturing, Mining, and 
Construction Sectors, Economy-Wide Statistics Division, U.S. Census 
Bureau, (301) 763-7170, or email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    The Census Bureau has conducted the Annual Survey of Manufactures 
(ASM) since 1949 to provide key measures of manufacturing activity 
during intercensal periods. In economic census years ending in ``2'' 
and ``7'', we do not conduct the ASM. ASM estimates are key inputs for 
multiple federal statistical programs, including the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis' National Income and Product Accounts. The ASM furnishes up-
to-date estimates of employment and payroll, hours and wages of 
production workers, value added by manufacture, cost of materials, 
value of shipments by the North American Product Classification System 
(NAPCS) product codes, inventories, and expenditures for both plant 
equipment and structures. The survey provides data at the two-through 
six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) levels. 
It also provides geographic data by state at a more aggregated industry 
level.
    ASM estimates are key inputs for multiple federal statistical 
programs. Federal agencies use the annual survey's input and output 
data as benchmarks for their statistical programs, including the 
Federal Reserve Board's Index of Industrial Production and BEA's 
National Income and Product Accounts. The data also provide the 
Department of Energy with primary information on the use of energy by 
the manufacturing sector to produce manufactured products. These data 
also are used as benchmark data for the Manufacturing Energy 
Consumption Survey, which is conducted for the Department of Energy by 
the Census Bureau. Within the Census Bureau, the ASM data are used to 
benchmark and reconcile monthly and quarterly data on manufacturing 
production and inventories. The ASM is the only source of complete 
establishment statistics for the programs mentioned above. The survey 
also provides valuable information to private companies, research 
organizations, and trade associations. Industry makes extensive use of 
the annual figures on product class shipments at the U.S. level in 
market analyses, product planning, and investment planning. State 
development/planning agencies rely on the survey as a major source of 
comprehensive economic data for policymaking, planning, and 
administration. The Census Bureau plans to request a revision of a 
currently approved collection. We plan to make the following changes:
    MA-10000--Multiple Establishment Companies and MA-10000--Single 
Establishment Companies:
    A. Content related to the Coronavirus Pandemic:
    1. Item 28--Special Inquiry:
    Add a question asking respondents to provide the number of days 
their location was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. This 
question will assist with measuring the impact on plant operations due 
to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
    The primary objective of adding this and other questions related to 
the Coronavirus Pandemic described below is to measure the impact of 
the Coronavirus Pandemic on the manufacturing sector and manufacturing 
establishments, and meet the needs of the data user community. As we 
continue in these unprecedented times, the Coronavirus Pandemic content 
may shift, change or evolve and require further modifications on the 
ASM.
    2. Item 5 and Item 28--Special Inquiry:
    Add a statement to Item 5 to specify/clarify that donated products 
should be included in the value.
    Add a question asking respondents if they donated products and the 
associated value of the donated products (breakout of Item 5, line A). 
Attempt to gather information on the value of shipments related to 
donated products by industry.
    3. Item 7:
    Add questions asking respondents to provide the payroll for 
production workers at the establishment by quarter. Collecting payroll 
information by range of months, rather than a point in time will 
reflect variability.
    4. Item 22:
    Add the following NAPCS to electronic instrument for all 
respondents:
    a. 2017900000--Manufacturing of nonelectric breathing devices 
(including N95 and other respirators), incubators, inhalators, and 
resuscitators, and other surgical and medical apparatus and 
instruments, excluding anesthetic apparatus and parts.

[[Page 55819]]

    b. 2018000000--Manufacturing of electromedical equipment (including 
diagnostic, therapeutic, patient monitoring equipment, and 
ventilators), excluding ionizing radiation equipment.
    c. 2050375000--Manufacturing of personal safety equipment and 
clothing, industrial and nonindustrial, including respiratory 
protection, face shields, masks, and protective clothing, excluding 
footwear, gloves, and surgical and medical respirators.
    d. 2045875000--Manufacturing of surgical appliances and supplies, 
including surgical gloves, bandages, gauze, cotton (sterile and non-
sterile), and other surgical dressings, excluding orthopedic and 
prosthetic appliances.
    e. 2010475000--Manufacturing of bath, facial, and hand soaps, 
including hand sanitizers.
    f. 2007875000--Manufacturing of other household specialty cleaning 
and sanitation products, including disinfectants.
    Industries have shifted to produce goods they normally do not 
produce. Adding the proposed NAPCS questions to all forms will assist 
with capturing a shift in production lines.
    B. Revisions related to integrating annual surveys: The Census 
Bureau is undertaking an initiative to integrate and re-engineer select 
annual programs. Programs include the Annual Survey of Manufactures 
(ASM), Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), Annual Wholesale Trade Survey 
(AWTS), Services Annual Survey (SAS), Annual Capital Expenditures 
Survey (ACES), Manufacturing Shipments Inventories and Unfilled Orders 
(M3UFO), and Company Organizational Survey (COS). Efforts include 
coordinating collection strategies/instruments/communication; 
integrating, changing or revising content; ensuring content is 
relevant; coordinating samples; and improving frame and coordinating 
status updates across annual surveys. The initiative to integrate and 
re-engineer select annual programs is scheduled to begin implementation 
in survey year 2023. The goal is to shift select annual programs from 
individual independent surveys to a streamlined integrated annual 
program. The new annual program will move from industry focused, 
individual surveys to requesting a more holistic view of the companies. 
Prior to survey year 2023, we plan to begin to align our annual 
programs and improve efficiencies across programs in targeted areas 
related to consistent content, processes, and systems. The initiative 
is in response to data user needs (timely, granular, harmonized data), 
and declining response rates.
    C. Item 7: Employment, Payroll, and Fringe Benefits: Add content 
collecting four quarters of payroll for production workers to be 
consistent with employment (Item 7A). Revisions and adjustments will be 
made to the presentation/layout/content of employment and payroll 
questions to streamline and improve the flow.
    D. Item 5: Sales, Shipments, Receipts, or Revenue: Remove Item 5B, 
market value of products shipped to other domestic plants of the 
company for further assembly, fabrication, or manufacture. This 
question is poorly reported and not utilized by data users.

II. Method of Collection

    The ASM statistics are based on a survey of active manufacturing 
establishments in the U.S. with one or more paid employees. The frame 
and sample are redesigned every 5 years and are annually supplemented 
with new manufacturing establishments. The frame is created from the 
preceding Economic Census--Manufacturing and is divided into mail and 
nonmail components. The mail portion of the survey consists of a 
probability sample that was redesigned for the 2019 ASM using a 
methodology similar to the one that was used for the 2014 ASM. However, 
the industry strata for the 2019 ASM frame were based on the 2017 
NAICS, which combines some of the six-digit codes in the Manufacturing 
Sector. The mail frame contained all manufacturing establishments of 
multiunit companies (companies with operations at more than one 
location) in the 2017 Economic Census plus the largest single-location 
manufacturing companies within each manufacturing industry. For the 
2019 ASM, approximately 49,400 establishments were selected from a mail 
frame of approximately 102,500 manufacturing establishments. The 2019 
ASM nonmail component contained the remaining single-location 
companies, approximately 186,700 establishments. No data are collected 
from establishments in the nonmail component. Rather, data are imputed 
based on models that incorporate the administrative records of the 
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration 
(SSA), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Though the nonmail 
establishments account for nearly two-thirds of the universe, they 
account for less than 6 percent of the manufacturing output.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0607-0449.
    Form Number(s): MA-10000--Multiple Establishment Companies; MA-
10000--Single Establishment Companies.
    Type of Review: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Affected Public: Business or Other for Profit, Non-profit 
Institutions, and State or Local Governments.
    Estimated Number of Respondents:

MA-10000--Multiple Establishment Companies                        34,161
MA-10000--Single Establishment Companies                          15,253
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    Total....................................................     49,414
 

    Estimated Time per Response:

MA-10000(L)--Multiple Establishment           3.5 hrs.
 Companies
MA-10000(S)--Single Establishment Companies   3.5 hrs.
 

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 172,949.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0. (This is not the cost of 
respondents' time, but the indirect costs respondents may incur for 
such things as purchases of specialized software or hardware needed to 
report, or expenditures for accounting or records maintenance services 
required specifically by the collection.)
    Respondents Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 
182.

IV. Request for Comments

    We are soliciting public comments to permit the Department/Bureau 
to: (a) Evaluate whether the proposed information collection is 
necessary for the proper functions of the Department, including whether 
the information will have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the accuracy 
of our estimate of the time and cost burden for this proposed 
collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions 
used; (c) Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and (d) Minimize the reporting burden 
on those who are to respond, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. We will include, or summarize, each comment in our 
request to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, 
phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information 
in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--
including your personal identifying information--may be made publicly 
available at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold 
your personal identifying information from public review, we

[[Page 55820]]

cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-19991 Filed 9-9-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P