The Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey is conducted to provide
an up to date indication of trends for sales and inventories of
U.S. Merchant Wholesalers, excluding manufacturers' sales branches
and offices (MSBOs). The survey provides a reliable measure of
current economic activity that is essential to an objective assessment
of the need for and impact of a wide range of public policy decisions.
The North American Industry Classification System is the standard
used by federal agencies in classifying a business' primary activity.
It replaced SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) beginning
in 1997. For further information regarding NAICS, you can access
the following website:
NAICS.
Users should note that not all NAICS and SIC industries are comparable
and there may be a break in the time series as SIC was phased
out and NAICS was phased in.
Economic indicators are statistical figures, which are used
to track the growth and decline of activity in specific segments
of the economy over time. Additional economic indicators produced
in other areas at the Census Bureau include Manufacturers' Shipments,
Inventories, and Orders; U.S. International Trade; Labor Force;
Income; Poverty; Government Budget and Debt; Plant and Equipment
Expenditures; and Services sector data.
The Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey collects and disseminates
sales and inventories data for U.S. Merchant Wholesalers, excluding
manufacturers' sales branches and offices. Data are disseimated
on an unadjusted and adjusted basis. Unadjusted data are computed
by summing all of the weighted data (reported or imptued) for
all reporting units in the sample. The adjusted estimates are
adjusted for seasonal variation and trading-day differences using
the Census Bureau's X-13 ARIMA-SEATS program.
Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey data are used by the Bureau of
Economic Analysis as input to their quarterly gross domestic product
(GDP) and GDP by industry estimates. It also provides the Federal
Reserve Board and Council of Economic Advisors with timely information
to assess current economic performance. Other government and private
stakeholders benefit from a better understanding of important cyclical
components of our economy.
The collection of monthly data doesn't begin until the month
ends. While companies are requested to provide data within the
first 10 business days, it usually takes at least 4 weeks to obtain
an acceptable response level. Processing and analyzing overlap
this collection period and it takes an additional 5 business days
to finalize the report. Preliminary MWTS estimates are typically
published approximately 40 days after the reference month. Final
estimates are published approximately 70 days after the reference
month. A schedule of all upcoming MWTS data releases
is available at the following link:
Release
Schedule
Since estimates are based on a sample rather than the entire
population, the published estimates may differ from the actual,
but unknown, population values. In principle, many random samples
could be drawn and each would give a different result. This is
because each sample would be made up of different businesses who
would give different answers to the questions asked. The spread
of these results is the sampling variability. Common
measures of the variability among these estimates are the sampling
variance, the standard error, and the coefficient of variation
(CV). The sampling variance is defined as the squared difference,
averaged over all possible samples of the same size and design,
between the estimator and its average value. The standard error
is the square root of the sampling variance. The CV expresses
the standard error as a percentage of the estimate to which it
refers. For example, an estimate of 200 units that has an estimated
standard error of 10 units has an estimated CV of 5 percent. The
CV has the advantage of being a relative, rather than an absolute,
measure and can be used to compare the reliability of one estimate
to another.
The historic release files from the surveys' web sites are the
reports as they were originally released. No updates are made
to the data as subsequent releases are made and additional analysis
is performed. The historic time series files are updated each
month in two ways:
- Current month preliminary estimates are added.
- Prior month estimates are finalized.
The Census Bureau takes its commitment to confidentiality very seriously. It constantly pursues new procedures,
technologies, and methodologies to safeguard individual data. Every person with access to person or business data is
sworn by
Title 13 to protect confidentiality and is
subject to criminal penalties if they do not. Tight computer security and strict access and handling procedures are followed.