Business Conditions Survey for the Manufacturing Industries (BCS)

Detailed information for July 2001

This voluntary survey is designed to provide an advance indication of current trends for the manufacturing sector of the Canadian economy.

Data release - August 2, 2001

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

This voluntary survey is designed to provide an advance indication of current trends for the manufacturing sector of the Canadian economy. Data are used by Industry Canada, Human Resources Canada, the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Manufacturing Association. In addition, Burns-Fry Toronto produces an index based on the data and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) produces a publication "Indicators of Industrial Activity".

Reference period: The first week of each quarter starting on January, April, July and October

Collection period: First 10 days of each quarter.

Subjects

• Business performance and ownership
• Current conditions
• Manufacturing

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The Canadian Manufacturing Industry.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Estimates produced by this survey are based on a stratified systematic sample of about 9,000 manufacturing establishments selected from the frame maintained by the Business Register. The sample used for this survey is the sample used for the monthly Survey of Manufacturing and is revised bi-annually to reflect changes in the composition of the Canadian manufacturing population. The population is stratified by industry within province and each stratum is then divided into three substrata of large, medium and small establishments according to the shipment value reported to the ASM. All large establishments are surveyed and a systematic sample is independently selected within each of the other two size (medium and small establishments) substrata.

Error detection

Revise data for previous quarter based on late returns.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

Responses are weighted to reflect the relative importance of the respondents' opinions for all questions except for the question on employment prospects. The weights are based on the value of shipments reported to the Annual Survey of Manufactures. The weights for the employment prospects question are based on employment data reported to the Annual Survey of Manufactures. For each possible answer to each question, the weighted responses are summed and expressed as percentages of all weighted responses.

Quality evaluation

No quantifiable measure of the sampling error is available for this survey. However, the sampling errors for the survey are generally expected to be lower than those from simple random samples of the same size. Non-sampling errors are controlled through a careful design of the questionnaire, the use of a minimal number of simple concepts, consistency checks and the annual update of the sample to reflect changes in the manufacturing population. Data from the Business Conditions Survey often provide a good guide to the direction of change in corresponding quantitative data series e.g. for manufacturing employment.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

The results of the BCS are published at high industry levels only, such as total manufacturing Canada and Provinces, and total manufacturing sectors Canada level only.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Data for the previous quarter are revised based on late returns.