/*SHORT TITLE: STRUCTURE OF 1992 ECONOMIC CENSUS CD-ROMS  */

STRUCTURE OF 1992 ECONOMIC CENSUS CD-ROMS

=>Organization of 1992 Economic Census CD-ROM series

This disc includes statistical information from the 1992 Economic Census
and several related data sets.  These data may be accessed by way of
public-domain software included on this disc (e.g., GO, EXTRACT, Profile)
or by various commercial software packages as discussed under the
"Software" menu option.

Data files from the 1992 Economic Census are being issued on CD-ROM in
five "volumes" or series of discs.  

     Volume 1, "Report Series", includes data covering all sectors for the
     U.S., states, counties, places and metropolitan areas, most of which
     also appears in printed reports.  ($500 by subscription to quarterly
     discs through 1996)

     Volume 2, "ZIP Code Statistics", includes a specialized set of data
     for the U.S., states, and ZIP Codes from the censuses of retail
     trade, service industries, and manufactures.  ($200 by subscription
     to two discs)

     Volume 3, "Truck Inventory and Use Survey Microdata File", includes
     individual records from that survey in a flat ASCII format that can
     be tabulated with the user's own software or with the simple QUICKTAB
     software included on the CD.  Trucks are identified to the state of
     registration.  ($150)

     Volume 4, "Nonemployer Statistics", includes statistics about
     establishments without paid employees alongside data about employer
     establishments for retail trade; service industries; transportation,
     communications and utilities; and financial, insurance, and real
     estate industries.  Data are summarized for the U.S., states,
     counties, places, and metropolitan areas.  Nonemployers in
     construction are covered in Volume 1; otherwise Volumes 1, 2, and 5
     include only employer establishments.  ($150, or free to subscribers
     to Volume 1)

     Volume 5, "Congressional Districts", provides 1992 statistics
     summarized by the districts of the 103rd Congress (1993-94).  Sectors
     covered include those mentioned for Volume 4, plus wholesale trade. 
     ($150)

=>Quarterly, Cumulative Issues of Volume 1

Reports from the 1992 Economic Census are being published on a flow basis
during 1994, 1995, and 1996.  The first disc in Volume 1, CD-ROM 1a, was
issued in June 1994, and included only data for the first state from the
census of retail trade and the first several industries from the
preliminary industry series of the census of manufactures, and for most
users functioned primarily as a test disc.  As data for additional
geographic areas and subject areas become available, the Volume 1 CD-ROM
series will be updated quarterly, from CD-ROM 1b available in September
1994 to CD-ROM 1j to be issued late in 1996.  Each successive disc will be
cumulative of each of its predecessors.  The projected contents and timing
of each disc in the series is provided in the "What's New?" menu.

While it is most practical to reissued CD-ROMs only once every quarter,
the files for them are being updated continuously as each new printed data
report is issued.  Subscribers to the Economic Census CD-ROM series who
need access to certain data files as soon as they are produced but before
they are out on CD-ROM may download them from the Census Bureau's
electronic Bulletin Board.  This service is described under "How to get
updates via Census/BEA Electronic Forum".

Volume 2 is being issued twice, once in fall 1995 when retail and service
data are available, a second time, in early 1996 when manufactures data
are available.  The second disc is cumulative.

Volumes 3, 4, and 5 are issued one time only.

=>Types of files on the CD-ROMs

The statistics included are the same as published in corresponding printed
report series, with a few exceptions (the Nonemployer Statistics, ZIP Code
Statistics, Congressional Districts, Merchandise Line Sales, Commodity
Line Sales,  Location of Manufacturing Plants, and Surveys of Minority-
and Women-Owned Business files include data not available in print).  

When the economic census CD-ROMs are complete, they will include the
following types of files.  (See the "What's New?" menu for the schedule
for availability of each data set.)  Unless otherwise noted, the data
appear on Volume 1.

     a.  Geographic Area Series--(detailed information about 
         establishments with payroll, by kind-of-business and by 
         geographic areas  U.S., States, metropolitan areas, counties,
         and places).

  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade
  2. 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade
  3. 1992 Census of Service Industries
  4. 1992 Census of Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate Industries
  5. 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications and Utilities
  6. 1992 Census of Manufactures
  7. 1992 Census of Mineral Industries
  8. 1992 Census of Construction Industries


     b.  Nonemployer Statistics--(statistics about establishments with no
         paid employees, by kind-of-business and by geographic area,
         complementing the Geographic Area series).  Except for
         Contruction Industries, these data appear on the separate Volume
         4.

  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade
  2. 1992 Census of Service Industries
  3. 1992 Census of Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate Industries
  4. 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications and Utilities
  5. 1992 Census of Construction

     c.  Industry Series--detailed information about establishments with
         payroll classified by industry and, in some cases, by the types
         of products produced or materials consumed--presented primarily
         at the national level, but with limited State data.)  Data are
         initially issued as "preliminary" and later superseded by "final"
         files that include additional tabulations.

  1. 1992 Census of Manufactures
  2. 1992 Census of Mineral Industries
  3. 1992 Census of Construction Industries

     d.  Merchandise/Commodity/Revenue Line Sales--(statistics on sales by
         kind-of-business by retail merchandise line or wholesale
         commodity line, for the U.S., States, and metropolitan areas).

  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade
  2. 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade
  3. 1992 Census of Service Industries
  4. 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications, and Utilities

     e.  Establishment and Firm Size--(general statistics by kind-of-
         business cross-tabulated by the size of the establishment or firm
         in terms of receipts or employment, the level of concentration in
         each kind of business in the largest firms, and legal form of
         organization--at the national level only.)

  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade
  2. 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade
  3. 1992 Census of Service Industries
  4. 1992 Census of Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate Industries
  5. 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications and Utilities

     f.  Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises--(information for
         the United States, States, the District of Columbia,  MSAs,
         counties and places.  Included are statistics on Blacks;
         Hispanics; Asian Americans, American Indians, and Other
         Minorities; and the parallel Women-Owned Businesses.)

     g.  Location of Manufacturing Plants--(Frequency counts of
         manufacturing establishments by employment-size class by 4-digit
         SIC for the US, States, counties, and places.)

     h.  Selected Historical Statistics--Selected data from the 1987 and
         1982 economic censuses.  While some 1992 census files include
         historical data, files of more extensive historical information
         are separate.  While formats have been adjusted to be as
         comparable to 1992 data sets as possible, the statistics
         themselves are as originally published, without adjustment for
         comparability with statistics from the 1992 Economic Censuses. 
         (Changes in the Standard Industrial Classification system between
         1982 and 1987, the definition of establishment counts, and
         boundaries of some geographic areas are discussed in the Guide to
         the 1992 Economic Censuses and Related Statistics.)  Some of
         these files were originally included on Volume 1, but were moved
         to Volume 4 to make room for other statistics.

     i.  Miscellaneous Files--Enterprise Statistics summarize the
         characteristics of firms rather than establishments.  There is an
         alphabetic index to SIC codes.  Also present are selected data
         from current programs, including data from the Annual Survey of
         Manufactures and the Monthly Retail Trade.

     j.  ZIP Code Statistics--Data for ZIP Code areas are of two types: 
         counts of establishments by ZIP Code by SIC by employment size
         class (retail, services, manufacturing) and by sales/receipts
         size class (retail and services only); and conventional
         tabulations of establishments, sales, employment and payroll by
         ZIP Code without breakdowns by SIC (retail and services only). 
         Included on Volume 2.
 
  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade  (on both discs 2a and 2b)
  2. 1992 Census of Service Industries  (on both discs 2a and 2b)
  3. 1992 Census of Manufactures  (on disc 2b only)

     k.  Congressional District Statistics--These data are similar in
         content to those for ZIP code areas, except for the fact that
         different sectors are covered.  Issued as Volume 5.

  1. 1992 Census of Retail Trade
  2. 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade
  3. 1992 Census of Service Industries
  4. 1992 Census of Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate Industries
  5. 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications and Utilities

     l.  Auxiliary Files--Area code lists feature geographic area names
         and kind-of-business titles.  Some of these files include extra
         useful codes or statistics, such as a flag indicating which MSAs
         changed 1987-1992, and population and per capita income estimates
         for selected geographic areas.  

     m.  Truck Inventory and Use Survey.  Summary statistics, such as
         appear in printed reports, are included on Volume 1.  Microdata,
         including records about individual trucks, appear on Volume 3, so
         that a user may manipulate the data with various statistical
         packages to derive statistics not included in the summary data.

=>Subdirectory Structure

1992 Economic Census CD-ROMs will ultimately include hundreds of files. 
For easy access, Volumes 1, 2, 4, and 5 organize the data in a number of
subdirectories:

         1992 Census files
 \RC92         1992 Census of Retail Trade 
 \WC92         1992 Census of Wholesale Trade 
 \SC92         1992 Census of Service Industries 
 \FC92         1992 Census of Financial, Insurance and Real Estate
               Industries
 \UC92         1992 Census of Transportation, Communications and Utilities
 \MC92         1992 Census of Manufactures 
 \NC92         1992 Census of Mineral Industries
 \MNC92        1992 Censuses of Manufacture/Mineral Industries
               (preliminary)
 \CC92         1992 Census of Construction Industries  
 \ES92         1992 Enterprise Statistics
 \CBO92        1992 Characteristics of Business Owners
 \MB92         1992 Surveys of Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses
         1987 and earlier census files have corresponding subdirectories
         on Volume 4.
         
         Annual, quarterly and monthly surveys:
 \SURVEYS\ASM       Annual Survey of Manufactures
 \SURVEYS\RMONTHLY  Monthly Retail Trade
 \SURVEYS\M3        Manufactures Shipments, Inventories, and Orders
         Other data files:
 \SICINDEX     Index to 1992, 1987 and 1972 Standard Industrial
               Classifications
 \EXPORT       Analytical Reports 
         Software:
 \GO92         "GO" software
 \EXTRACT      EXTRACT software and supporting files
 \AUXIL        Auxiliary files used by EXTRACT
 \PROFILE      Consolidated files for profiles
 \DOCUMENT     DocView software 
                    subdirectory structure under \DOCUMENT parallels that
                    of the data files, e.g. \DOCUMENT\RC92 includes ASCII
                    text files describing files in the \RC92 directory.


=>File Structure

->Data Files

Data files on economic census CD-ROM's are presented in dBASE III+ format
and have the extension .DBF--with one exception.  Truck Inventory and Use
Survey Microdata are presented as flat ASCII files on Volume 3.  Most .DBF
data files have one or more dBASE-compatible index files that can be used
to quickly locate particular records or to change the sequence of access.

->Auxiliary Files

Each file on the CD-ROM is documented in two ways.  First, ASCII text
files are included with all necessary descriptive information, and may be
viewed or printed out using the DocView software.  Second, documentation
for dBASE files is included in the form of "auxiliary files" usable by
EXTRACT and other computer programs.  These files include data
dictionaries, label files, catalog files, and help screen files.  Except
for the help screen files, all of these auxiliary files are in dBASE III+ format.
->  Data Dictionary Files

Data dictionary files .DCT define the variables in the 
corresponding data file(s) more completely than can the dBASE 10-character
variable name.  Each data dictionary file has either the same filename as
the corresponding .DBF file except that D is the last character of the
filename, or has a shorter filename so that it can serve as data
dictionary for a number of files that all start with the same characters
in the filename.  Dictionary files are in dBase III+ format even though
they do not have the .DBF extension.  Most data dictionaries include both
a .DCT file and a matching .DBT file.  The .DBT files carry definitions
that are referenced as memo fields from the .DCT files.

->  Label Files

Label files .DBF carry the titles for each kind of business and
geographic area.  These files may also be referred to as stub files, since
they carry the text information normally found in the stub (i.e., left-
hand column) of printed tables.  Memo fields may be used to provide longer
definitions of values, in which case there is a .DBT file with the same
file name.  Each label file is indexed to the values of code fields on the
corresponding data files.  (For more information about specific files, see
Table 3)  In dBASE III or IV, the SET RELATION TO command can be used to
link these value titles to the corresponding records in data files.  Label
files, particularly those with names for geographic areas, may be useful
independent of these data files.

->  Catalog Files

Catalog files .CTG list the files of a particular type that are
available, along with a one-line description of each one.  The 
"MASTER.CTG" lists the available catalogs, or types of files, available on
the device.  Files with the extension .CTI list index files. 

->  Help Screen Files

Each catalog of files has a corresponding ASCII text file 
".TXT" which can be printed out to give a brief narrative 
description of that group of files.