National Clothesline

Soon, America will be blanketed with a different kind of winter storm: one that spreads throughout the country in the form of millions of pieces of paper, otherwise known as the 2002 Economic Census forms.

In December, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau will be sending out the forms to five million American businesses.

Since 1967, the Census Bureau has tabulated the Economic Census every five years. The results are an invaluable resource for federal agencies that use the numbers as a basis for key measures of economic activity, such as retail sales and the Gross Domestic Product.

The last time the Economic Census was taken was 1997. The numbers from that year revealed that there were 27,939 establishments in the country engaged in drycleaning and laundry services, excluding coin-operated laundries, industrial laundries and linen and uniform supply firms.

The total revenue accrued by the industry added up to $7.09 billion, or an average of $253,840 per establishment. Based on a total annual payroll of $2.6 billion, or 36% of the total receipts, the 203,777 employees on the industry’s payroll (as of March 12, 1997) made an average of $34,803 per year.

When the figures for coin-ops, industrial laundries and linen and uniform supply firms are factored into the mix, the subcategory of Drycleaning and Laundry Services for the U.S. in 1997 climbs to 44,782 establishments with receipts of nearly $18 billion and an annual payroll of almost $6 billion for 395,000 employees.

The Economic Census has long proved to be a comprehensive barometer for the economic history of each domestic industry. Drycleaning, for example, peaked with 30,625 plants in 1967. The total number of drycleaning establishments fell sharply through the early 70s and late 80s, reaching as low as 21,257 in 1987. Since then, the industry has grown in size, but it has failed to reach the 1967 level again.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan believes the Economic Census is “indispensable to understanding America’s economy.”

Thus, accuracy is of paramount importance.

For this reason, all businesses that receive forms can face a penalty of up to $500 for failure to report and $10,000 for intentionally providing false information, according to Section 224 of the census law (Title 13, United States Code).

Census forms will be sent out to all mid-sized and large businesses in every industry and geographical area of the country. Most businesses with five or more paid employees, and a sample of smaller ones, will receive forms, as well.

If a company has more than one location, all forms will be sent to one headquarters location.

All businesses that receive forms are required to fill them out and return them by Feb. 12, 2003. For the first time in its history, the Census Bureau is allowing about 3.5 million locations to file their forms electronically through the Internet or a computer disk.

It is important to note that all business responses to the Census Bureau are required by law to be kept confidential.

In an effort to be more thorough than censuses from past years, the 2002 Economic Census will feature many new items, including:

• The first official measure of e-commerce for all industries;

• New information on changing business supply-chain functions;

• The first information on leased employees in business;

• Initial use of the North American Product Classification System for products in about 85 service industries;

• Expanded information on purchased services and classes of customers.

This year’s forms have been redesigned with the intention of making it easier for respondents to read and complete. There are more than 600 variants of the basic form to cater more specifically to particular industries and business operations.

Overall, it will take almost a year for the government to tally the final numbers, which will include information on more than 1,000 industries and over 50,000 geographic areas.

The first results for the 2002 Economic Census are expected to be published in early 2004. The rest of the results will be issued on the Internet and on CD-ROM over a two-year period.

The Census Bureau’s hotline, (800) 233-6136, will be available to answer questions between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.

Assistance can also be obtained by visiting www.census.gov/econ2002. Business owners may visit the site to preview the forms they will receive in December. The web page also contains links to the results of the 1997 Economic Census.