Manufacturers' Unfilled Orders Survey

The sampling frame for the most recent full M3UFO survey, the 2019/2018 M3UFO survey, was constructed using information extracted from the Census Bureau’s 2018 Business Register and updated with measure-of-size (shipments) data from the 2017 Economic Census. This sample frame represented roughly 70,000 manufacturing companies located in the United States having five or more employees and with establishments classified in any of the 47 M3 industry categories described above. For more information, see: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/m3ufo/technical-documentation/methodology.html

The monthly M3 estimates are based on a relatively small panel of domestic manufacturers and reflect primarily the month-to-month changes of large companies. There is a clear need for periodic benchmarking of the M3 estimates to reflect the manufacturing universe. The Census of Manufactures, which is conducted every five years and covers the manufacturing sector, provides annual benchmarks for the shipments and inventories data in the monthly M3 survey. In the years between Economic Censuses, the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) provides these annual benchmarks. The Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders (M3UFO) Survey provides the annual benchmarks for the unfilled orders data.

The industries selected for the M3UFO survey are those which the U.S. Census Bureau has determined to maintain considerable unfilled orders. Annual unfilled orders benchmarks are produced from the M3UFO survey for 47 industry categories encompassing the following major groups in manufacturing

To link to external business data, also request County Business Patterns Business Register.. ALPHA (Census firm ID). Permanent Plant Number (PPN, Census establishment ID)

• Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• State abbreviation
• Zip code
• Other (see Linkage Capabilities description)