Nonsubstantive Change Request

Annual Survey of Manufactures (0607-0449)

Non-substantive Change Request

This non-substantive change request includes the addition of an unfilled orders (UFO) question to the 2021 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) and removal of the coronavirus pandemic content that was collected on the 2020 ASM. See Attachment A for content changes proposed below.

Unfilled Orders (UFO):

In the ASM submission last year, we proposed adding UFO content to the 2021 ASM pending the results of cognitive testing. Cognitive testing determined that respondents could report unfilled orders data at the establishment level. The Census Bureau plans to add this content to the 2021 ASM for research and evaluation purposes, while continuing to collect the Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders (M3UFO) Survey. This research will be used to determine how to best collect the data on a proposed integrated annual survey (currently under development), as well as to identify any industries that should be included in the current UFO collection. Currently, the M3UFO Survey does not cover the entire manufacturing sector.

Coronavirus Pandemic content:

Upon evaluation of the 2020 ASM response data and current and expected manufacturing operations, the following coronavirus pandemic questions will be removed for the 2021 ASM:

1. Days Closed Special Inquiry (Item 30):

Question asking respondents to provide the number of days their location was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

2. Donated Products Special Inquiry (Item 29):

Question asking respondents if they donated products and the associated value of the donated products.

3. Payroll for production workers (part of Item 7):

Questions asking respondents to provide quarters two through four for production worker payroll at the establishment.

4. NAPCS:

Coronavirus pandemic specific NAPCS added for all respondents will no longer be automatically included in the 2021 paths without some prior reporting indication.

Burden:

For survey year 2021 we expect 53,000 respondents will receive the MA-10000. This increase from the current estimate of 49,000, is due to the addition of establishments via the annual ASM birth processing. The average time required to complete the survey will be increased to 3.8 hours. This estimate accounts for the inclusion of the UFO question on all ASM paths and removing the coronavirus pandemic questions. As a result of cognitive testing, the proposed 2020 OMB burden estimate average of 20 minutes for the UFO question proved to be accurate. The removed pandemic questions accounted for 15 minutes of burden. The net increase in average burden per response is 5 minutes.

The total annual response burden is estimated to be 201,400 work hours. This is a total change of 20,100 hours.

Annual Responses	Average time per response	Total Annual Burden
53,000	3.8 hours	201,400