How is the Annual Survey of Manufactures carried out?
A mail-out/mail-back survey of 55,000 selected establishments and administrative data for small employers and new businesses. The mail survey represents all establishments that received a form in the previous census of manufactures. Some 25,000 large establishments (all establishments of multi-unit companies with shipments of at least $500 million, manufacturers of selected computer products, and all remaining establishments with at least 250 employees) are selected with certainty, and some 30,000 other establishments (generally with the equivalent of 20 to 250 employees) are selected with probability proportional to a composite measure of establishment size. Selected establishments receive a long form; except that, to reduce burden, about 5,000 single-establishment firms from industries with large numbers of small firms (that have between 5 to 20 employees) receive a short form.
