The U.S. Census Bureau has released the main data set from the 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES), marking the first time a comprehensive annual overview of U.S. employer businesses is available in a single report.
The AIES provides economic information such as business revenue, expenses, payroll, and employment across different geographic levels. While similar data was previously limited to national figures for many sectors, the new release includes regional and divisional details, with some state-level estimates for selected industries.
“This release of data represents a significant step forward in the Census Bureau’s efforts to adapt to our ever-changing economy and transform our business statistics,” said Lisa Donaldson, assistant director for Economic Programs. “By combining breadth of coverage with new geographic detail, the AIES provides insights that will shape decisions across the public and private sectors.”
Highlights from this release show that automobile dealers generated an estimated $278.2 billion in revenue and employed about 281,789 workers in 2023. Drugs and druggists’ sundries merchant wholesalers reported approximately $298.6 billion in sales.
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing firms employed around 78,565 workers with an annual payroll of $8.8 billion. Hospitals earned roughly $300.6 billion in revenue and had 1,337,057 employees.
Grocery stores brought in an estimated $337.5 billion in revenue with a payroll totaling $32.1 billion annually.
Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution companies employed about 202,720 people with an annual payroll of $24.4 billion.
Telecommunications businesses reported revenues near $155.9 billion and paid out about $19.6 billion in payroll annually. Data processing, hosting, and related services companies had approximately 258,344 employees with an annual payroll of $30.4 billion.
The survey covers domestic private sector nonfarm employer businesses that operated during part or all of 2023 within the fifty states or Washington D.C., have paid employees, and fall into one of nineteen sectors defined by the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The sample included about 385,000 businesses selected by location and industry.
Estimates are not adjusted for inflation and may be affected by sampling variability or other sources of error.
The Census Bureau reviewed all data products from this survey to ensure proper access controls and confidentiality protections were applied to source data.
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