The US Department of Commerce recently revised its manufacturing data series, of which commercial printing was one. The Department conducts regular collections and constant reviews of data. The most important benchmarks are the Economic Census programs, where intense survey and government statistics work is conducted every five years. In the intervening years, they conduct a survey, the Annual Survey of Manufactures. Unlike a census, this is a very sophisticated survey that is projected to the economy using the foundation of the Economic Census. These two research efforts are combined with other government surveys and administrative statistics, such as tax collections data (identities removed), to support economic programs that result in data we see such as Gross Domestic Product and many others.

Government data are not always correct, nor are they always timely, when they are released. Eventually, with enough revision cycles over years, they are. As businesspeople, we want information now. This is why it is so important to understand the methodologies that are used and to understand the various revision cycles. Generally, it’s very easy for government programs to detect the economic activities of the largest companies and industries. It’s the small and medium size enterprises that present problems to government statisticians. They are not surveyed often, and they do not report as frequently. A good example is the submission of Social Security taxes. Large businesses submit detailed information with every weekly payroll. Smaller businesses may only have to pay monthly, and the smallest report quarterly. Businesses that have no employees report and pay Social Security tax once a year with their personal taxes.

There are many stakeholders in the economy who desire data as quickly as possible. In this case, the government issues data on an advance or preliminary basis, and then issue data they call “final.” This is the exact process with the GDP reports. Sorry. Nothing is “final.”