Businesses asked to mail in census forms from 2007

The U.S. Census Bureau has asked businesses to mail in by Feb. 12 their 2007 Economic Census forms, which will provide the government with its first major business survey in five years.

The bureau has sent out forms to more than 4 million American businesses, including about 220,000 in the Los Angeles-Orange County area. Paul Zeisset, a special assistant for the Economic Census, said there were more than 500 different applications for different types of businesses, all featuring questions about location, sales, payroll, employment and other factors.

He added that the government used the census information in a number of ways.

“Without the Economic Census, we wouldn’t have tools for doing things like the GDP and monthly retail sales,” Zeisset said.

For more information, call (877) 790-1876 or visit business.census.gov.

— Michael Miller