Census seeks comments on future Annual Business Surveys

In the October 24 edition of the Federal Register, the U.S. Census Bureau released a request for comment (RFI) on a proposed Annual Business Survey (ABS). The ABS is a new survey designed to combine Census Bureau firm-level collections that replaces the five-year Survey of Business Owners (SBO) for employer businesses, the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE), and the Business Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation for Microbusinesses (BRDI-M) surveys.  The ABS will provide the only comprehensive data on business owner demographics and business characteristics, including financing, research and development (for microbusinesses), and innovation. These data are not publicly available from nongovernment or other governmental sources.

The intent of the RFI is to gather recommendations and other information from the public to help facilitate the collection process of data for the survey. It also provides information about the data that bureau intends to collect as well as brief details about how the data will be collected. Comments are due on or before November 24.