Current and Future Directions for the U.S. Industry Accounts

This paper provides an overview of the Industry Accounts for the United States, which are prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. It includes a brief history of the programs with emphasis on the past 10 years, as well as a discussion of plans for future work. The Industry Accounts include the benchmark input-output (I-O) accounts, which are based on detailed data from the economic censuses that are conducted every 5 years by the Bureau of the Census; the annual I-O accounts, which provide users with updated information since the most recent benchmark tables; and the gross product by industry accounts, which provide industry time series data on the contributions of industries to gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, the Industry Accounts include two satellite initiatives, one for travel and tourism and another for transportation–both of which were developed as extensions of the core accounts.