A Satellite Account to Measure the Retail Transformation Organizational, Conceptual, and Data Foundations (2021) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Summary
Summary
Pages 1-8
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to evaluate changes in the retail trade sector since the 1990s, assess measures of employment and labor productivity for the sector, and discuss the value and specifications for a satellite account to measure retailrelated employment and labor productivity that would better capture the transformation. The request was motivated in part by shifts in the ways that warehouses, transportation, and delivery services are now supporting retail, which are not reflected in retail employment and labor productivity statistics.
|
From page 2... ...
In addition, large retailers sometimes outsource some traditional retail services, such as customer service and order fulfilment, whereas small retailers usually provide these services directly. This difference in cost structures between large and small retailers heightens the importance of using measures of employment and labor productivity that can be meaningfully compared across retailers that are structured differently.
|
From page 3... ...
As a result, the way the data are currently collected makes it difficult to identify the portion of wholesale, warehousing, and transportation services, or the portion of leasing or digital transactions that are closely related to retail trade and could be usefully analyzed as part of a broader retail-related sector. A study of a broader retail sector will require estimates of the retail-related portion of industries -- such as warehousing -- where the relevant NAICS codes are only partially related to retail (Conclusion 3-1)
|
From page 4... ...
The Economic Census and the Economic Surveys provide limited data on purchases and operating expenses for computing gross margin and value-added output measures, respectively. These data limitations limit the level of industry detail and frequency for gross margin and valueadded measures of retail output.
|
From page 5... ...
. BLS currently develops measures of employment and labor productivity in retail that focus on the retail sector as specifically defined by NAICS, use a sectoral output measure of nominal output that is deflated by the CPI, and reflect hours worked in retail establishments that are not adjusted for labor quality.
|
From page 6... ...
The health care satellite account involves a reconceptualization of health care spending, which might suggest novel ways to reflect the changing cost structure of retail. The outdoor recreation satellite account addresses the challenge of dividing up statistics from several industries to combine some of them in a new grouping that is useful to the field.
|
From page 7... ...
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A RETAIL SATELLITE ACCOUNT The panel endorses the creation of a satellite account to study the transformation in retail trade. Such an account would be an appropriate and useful vehicle for BLS to use to study the impact on employment and productivity of the transformation in retail trade and to develop exploratory measures that describe that transformation (Conclusion 5-1)
|
From page 8... ...
Individual projects include: Filling data gaps in the Economic Census and Economic Surveys that relate to the calculation of gross margins, value added, and the contribution of auxiliaries; identifying data to estimate the split in hours worked between retail-related and nonretail-related for retailrelated service industries; correcting for differences in the numerator and denominator of productivity caused by the use of different business registers and classifications; and exploring the use of private-sector data to improve the timeliness and detail provided in the account. Some of these efforts are best accomplished by a team with access to the Census Bureau's economic microdata (Recommendation 9)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.