U.S. businesses invested $731.1 billion for new and used capital goods in 1995. Spending on new structures and equipment accounted for $660.6 billion (90.4 percent of total expenditures). Expenditures for structures totaled $234.4 billion, with $205.7 billion (87.7 percent) for new structures. Spending for equipment was $496.3 billion, with $454.9 billion (91.7 percent) for new equipment. Businesses reported $0.3 billion as ’’other‘‘ capital expenditures (such as art, uniforms, etc.).

Businesses with five employees or more spent $601.1 billion (82.2 percent of capital expenditures for all businesses) for new and used structures and equipment in 1995. New structures and equipment accounted for $565.8 billion. Expenditures for structures alone were $183.1 billion, with $169.4 billion (92.5 percent) for new structures. Spending for equipment was $417.7 billion, with $396.4 billion (94.9 percent) for new equipment. Capital expenditures for 1995 for these businesses increased 9.4 percent from 1994 and 22.8 percent from 1993.

Businesses with fewer than five employees spent $129.9 billion (17.8 percent of total expenditures for all businesses) on capital goods in 1995. Spending for new structures and equipment totaled $94.8 billion (72.9 percent of total expenditures for businesses with fewer than five employees). Expenditures for structures totaled $51.3 billion, with $36.2 billion (70.6 percent) for new structures. Spending for equipment totaled $78.6 billion, with $58.5 billion (74.4 percent) for new equipment. Capital expenditures in 1995 for these smaller businesses increased 25.9 percent for the 2-year period 1993 to 1995. Comparable change data from 1994 are not available.

Overall, businesses spent more for equipment than structures. Total expenditures for businesses with five employees or more were divided 69.5 percent for equipment and 30.5 percent for structures with a similar pattern for the smaller businesses. Most individual sectors also spent more for equipment than structures. However, the Mining, Insurance and Real Estate, and Health Services sectors spent more for structures than equipment.

• Tables

Highlights of Capital Expenditures by Business Sector

Note: The following data aggregates by business sector are for businesses with five employees or more. Business sector data were not collected for businesses with fewer than five employees.

The following table displays capital expenditures data and percent change from 1994 to 1995 for business sectors with statistically significant percent changes

Manufacturing

This sector led in expenditures for capital goods by spending $181.0 billion (30.1 percent of total expenditures). Of this amount, $38.7 billion was for structures and $142.2 billion was for equipment. Manufacturing industries spent $137.2 billion on new equipment, more than one-third of total new equipment purchases. Investment spending was divided fairly evenly between Durable Goods and Nondurable Goods industries, $97.0 billion and $84.0 billion, respectively.Among the Durable Goods industries, the Communications Equipment and Electronic Components industry led other industries by spending $26.8 billion. Second in spending was the Motor Vehicles and Parts industry with $16.0 billion. Among the Nondurable Goods industries, the Chemical Products industry spent $18.0 billion and the Food Products industry spent $15.6 billion.

Services

This sector followed manufacturing in expenditures for capital goods by spending $134.2 billion (22.3 percent of total capital expenditures). Of this amount, $43.1 billion was for structures and $91.1 billion was for equipment. Rental and Business Services accounted for $72.9 billion, or slightly more than half of Services expenditures. The Automotive and Truck Rental and Leasing industry was the largest contributor to this sector, spending $28.9 billion. The second largest Services component was Health Services, where the Hospitals industry accounted for $21.7 billion of the $32.3 billion spent by the Health Services sector. The remainder of expenditures was in the Membership Organizations, Educational and Miscellaneous Services sector.

Retail Trade

This sector divided expenditures fairly evenly between structures and equipment. Of the $51.9 billion (8.6 percent of total capital expenditures) spent for capital goods, $23.6 billion was for structures and $28.3 billion was for equipment.

Communications

Almost all spending in this sector was for new capital goods. Total spending was $46.3 billion (7.7 percent of total capital expenditures), of which $45.7 billion (98.7 percent) was for new structures and equipment.

Utilities

Of the $38.4 billion (6.4 percent of total capital expenditures) spent for capital goods, $37.0 billion was new spending.This sector divided expenditures fairly evenly between structures and equipment. Structures expenditures were $17.1 billion while equipment expenditures were $21.3 billion.

Transportation

This sector spent $33.9 billion (5.6 percent of total capital expenditures) for capital goods. Leading this sector in the purchase of capital goods was the Motor Freight Transportation and Warehousing industry, which spent $13.0 billion.

Finance

This sector spent $30.4 billion (5.1 percent of total capital expenditures) for capital goods, including $28.7 billion for new structures and equipment. Commercial Banks accounted for $10.9 billion and Nondepository Credit Institutions accounted for $10.2 billion of spending.

Mining

This sector spent $27.6 billion (4.6 percent of total capital expenditures) for capital goods. The Crude Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids industry led other industries in this sector by spending $18.9 billion.

Insurance and Real Estate

This sector spent $19.8 billion (3.3 percent of total capital expenditures) for capital goods, including $12.5 billion for structures. Real Estate Offices accounted for $11.2 billion of spending.

Construction

This sector had the highest percentage of its spending for equipment purchases. Total spending for capital goods was $10.4 billion (1.7 percent of total capital expenditures), of which $9.4 billion was for equipment. This sector also purchased the largest amount of used equipment as a percentage of industry purchases, spending $1.8 billion or 17.4 percent of total expenditures for the Construction sector.

Note: Sampling is used to collect the data presented in this report. Thus, the data are subject to sampling variability as well as reporting and coverage errors. All data comparisons shown above are statistically significant.