MARCH 12, 2020 — The U.S. Census Bureau will release Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) data for the fourth quarter of 2019 on March 12, 2020. As part of the release, the Census Bureau will more than double the number of industries that are seasonally adjusted in the QSS. This is important because seasonal patterns can mask underlying economic conditions. Seasonal adjustment produces data in which the values of neighboring quarters are usually easier to compare.

QSS is the only economic indicator providing timely estimates of revenue and expenses for selected service industries. With this expansion, seasonally adjusted estimates will be available for the following groups:

Industry Group 5111 - Newspaper, Periodical Book, and Directory Publishers

Subsector 561 - Administrative and Support Services

Selected industries within the following sectors:

52 - Finance and Insurance

53 - Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

62 - Health Care and Social Assistance

71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 

The Census Bureau expects to add 62 new seasonally adjusted QSS series, bringing the total number of seasonally adjusted series to 100. Seasonally adjusted estimates will be provided for all quarters for which unadjusted estimates are available. Estimates will be released with the fourth quarter 2019 report on March 12, 2020. The new seasonally adjusted estimates will be published on Table 1a of the press release and will be available in our time series database, <www.census.gov/econ/currentdata/>.

The last seasonal adjustment expansion was released with the fourth quarter 2018 QSS. In that release, the Census Bureau introduced 26 new seasonally adjusted QSS series, including the Selected Services Total. 

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