EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:30 A.M. EST, FEBRUARY, 18, 2000 (FRIDAY) Public Information Office CB00-30 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Steve Roman 301-457-2786 Nation's Finance and Insurance Industries Generate More Than $2 Trillion in Revenues, Census Bureau Reports The nation's finance and insurance industries generated $2.2 trillion in revenue, employed 5.8 million workers at more than 395,000 locations and paid their employees $265 billion in 1997, according to economic census reports released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Nationally, revenues for finance businesses, which include both depository and nondepository credit institutions, as well as securities, commodities and other investment firms, totaled $1.1 trillion. Insurance business revenues, including premiums and investment income of carriers, as well as commissions of insurance agencies and brokerages, also totaled $1.1 trillion. The 1997 Economic Census marks the premiere of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). NAICS is a new system for classifying businesses which replaces the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system begun 60 years ago. It features many more useful business classifications than the previous system. For example, 1997 NAICS-based data show that annual payroll per employee ranged from $25,000 per year in the credit union industry to $159,000 per year in investment banking; this level of detail was not separately available under the SIC system. The 52 new reports one for each state, the District of Columbia and the United States comprise the series titled 1997 Economic Census, Geographic Area Series, Finance and Insurance. Released on the Internet, these reports present summary data by industry for the United States, states and metropolitan areas. Data compiled for the finance and insurance sector are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors may be attributable 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.-X-
