The U.S. Census Bureau’s Service Annual Survey is a great source of data on the information and communications industries. I’ve put together a dataset based on this source to make the data for 1998 to 2007 easier to use.
The Service Annual Surveys cover various categories of revenue, expenditure, and inventories. The data are collected mainly from surveys of firms with employees (employer firms). The firms are assigned to industry categories based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). NAICS 51, Information Sector Services, includes wireline and wireless telecommunications, radio, broadcast television, cable television, and other communications services. NAICS 54, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, includes display advertising, direct mail advertising, and advertising services such as advertising agencies.
I’ll call the dataset I put together the Information and Communication Industries Revenue (ICIR) Dataset. It contains revenue data for the information sector (which includes communications industries) and advertising and related services from the Service Annual Survey for 2000, 2004, and 2007. These three report years include annual data spanning 1998 to 2007, and, in most cases, contain the most recent revisions of previous years’ data. Because many reporting categories have changed across this decade, all the data cannot be easily organized into one consistent, detailed scheme spanning the decade. Having the data in an analytically convenient form facilitates extracting, re-organizing, manipulating, matching, and comparing data of interest.
You should refer to the official Service Annual Survey reports to understand and validate the ICIR Dataset. The variable named “lid” organizes the ICIR Dataset in the line order of the Service Annual Survey reports. The ICIR Dataset includes some estimates that are not Census Bureau estimates. See the summary tab for a description of these additional estimates. To understand the meaning of blank values in the ICIR Dataset, refer to the original Service Annual Survey reports. The dataset has a complex category scheme that does not include complete partitions at some levels. Once again, refer to the original reports to understand the items.
Here’s the Information and Communication Industries Revenue (ICIR) Dataset as a browser-friendly Google spreadsheet. You can also download the ICIR Dataset as an Excel workbook.