The U.S. Census Bureau has released the main data set from the 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES), marking the first time that a single, comprehensive annual overview of U.S. employer businesses is available.
The AIES offers economic information such as business revenue, expenses, payroll, and employment with more detailed geographic breakdowns than previously provided for many sectors. The newly published data includes national, regional, and divisional statistics, with some state-level estimates for selected industries.
“This release of data represents a significant step forward in the Census Bureau’s efforts to adapt to our ever-changing economy and transform our business statistics,” said Lisa Donaldson, assistant director for Economic Programs. “By combining breadth of coverage with new geographic detail, the AIES provides insights that will shape decisions across the public and private sectors.”
The survey features sample statistics from each census region. For example, automobile dealers generated about $278.2 billion in revenue and employed roughly 281,789 workers in 2023. Drugs and druggists’ sundries merchant wholesalers reported sales estimated at $298.6 billion.
In other sectors, pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing employed an estimated 78,565 people with an annual payroll of $8.8 billion; hospitals earned about $300.6 billion in revenue while employing approximately 1,337,057 people; grocery stores brought in around $337.5 billion in revenue with an annual payroll near $32.1 billion; electric power generation employed about 202,720 workers with a payroll of $24.4 billion; telecommunications reported revenues of $155.9 billion and a payroll of $19.6 billion; data processing services employed around 258,344 workers with an annual payroll of $30.4 billion.
The AIES covers domestic private sector nonfarm employer businesses operating at any point during 2023 within all fifty states or Washington D.C., provided they had paid employees and were classified under one of nineteen sectors as defined by the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The survey sampled approximately 385,000 businesses based on location and industry.
Estimates have not been adjusted for price changes and may be affected by sampling variability or other errors. Further details on methodology are available through the Census Bureau’s resources on coverage and confidentiality protection.
The Census Bureau has reviewed these data products to ensure proper access controls and protection against disclosure risks for confidential source information.
