EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M., JULY 22, 1999 (THURSDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-139
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Jack Drago/Dawn Rosser
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Census Bureau Issues First Economic Census State Report, for
Wyoming, on Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
The Commerce Department's Census Bureau today released the first in a
series of state reports on the Professional, Scientific and Technical
Services sector of the economy from the 1997 Economic Census.
The report, 1997 Economic Census, Geographic Area Series, Professional,
Scientific and Technical Services: Wyoming, released on the Internet,
presents separate data by industry for firms subject to, and exempt from,
federal income taxes. It provides statewide, metropolitan area, county and
place data for taxable firms, as well as statewide and metropolitan area
data for tax-exempt firms. Reports on this sector for the remaining states
will be issued through 1999.
Among the report's findings for Wyoming:
- Some 409 taxable legal offices generated receipts of $117.4 million,
accounting for the largest share (more than 30 percent) of the $388.8
million received by taxable firms in 1997 in the Professional, Scientific
and Technical Services sector of the state's economy. These offices
employed 1,312 people.
- Engineering-services firms and certified public accountants' offices
were next in receipts by taxable firms, with $65.8 million and $39.6
million, respectively.
- Casper ($9.8 million) and Cheyenne ($8.0 million) together accounted
for nearly half of the state's receipts by certified public
accountants' offices.
- Overall, taxable professional, scientific and technical services
firms employed 5,274 workers at 1,264 locations.
- The state's tax-exempt professional, scientific and technical
services firms operated out of 11 locations, generating $2.9 million
in revenues and employing 36 workers. Scientific research and
development services firms contributed most of the revenues
($2.2 million); the rest came from legal aid societies and similar
legal services ($683,000).
The 1997 Economic Census marks the premiere of a new business
classification system called the North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS). It replaces the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
system begun 60 years ago.
"The United States developed the new system jointly with Canada and
Mexico, making it much easier to compare data with our North American Free
Trade Agreement partners," said Frederick Knickerbocker, the Census
Bureau's associate director for economic programs. "It is also much easier
to update, so that economic data can keep pace with the nation's changing
economy."
Data compiled for the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
sector are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be
attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the
universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences in the
interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data
obtained; and other errors of collection, response, coverage, processing
and estimation for missing or misreported data.
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