Quarterly results from the Business Outlook Survey (BOS) are based on interviews with about 10 firms in the primary sector, 23 in the manufacturing sector, 21 in the CITU sector, 15 in the trade sector, 14 in the FIRE sector and 16 in the CPBS sector (sectors are defined below). This page presents BOS data for each of these sectors. For more information, see the backgrounder.
Sectors are defined by the grouping of North American Industry Classification System codes as follows: primary sector: 11 and 21; manufacturing: 311–339; construction, information and cultural industries (CITU): 22, 23, 48, 49 and 51; trade: 41, 44 and 45; finance, insurance, real estate and leasing (FIRE): 52–53; and commercial, personal and business services (CPBS): 54, 55, 56, 71, 72 and 81. Because the responses are presented here as four-quarter moving averages, these charts may not show the same movements as the aggregate BOS data published each quarter.