The US Census Bureau has released the first statistics from the 2017 Economic Census of island Area which includes American Samoa.
The census, which was conducted in 2018, collected information on number of businesses and industry, sales, annual payroll, number of employees and operating expenses.
A media briefing on the report for American Samoa was conducted today by officials of the US Census Bureau Robert Nusz and Lawrence Montgomery.
Some of the highlights of the census for American Samoa:
Total sales for all businesses were $1.079 billion a drop from the 2012 census which recorded total sales of $1.153 billion.
The total annual payroll for all businesses was over $143 million, an increase from the 2012 figure of $114 million. Total number of employees for 2017 was 8,767 up from 7,070 in 2012.
The largest industry in 2017 was manufacturing with over $389 million in sales. Manufacturing sales were not captured in 2012.
Retail trade was the second highest with total sales at $291,671, up from $209,954 in 2012.
Wholesale trade was the third highest economic sector with total sales of $124,798. But this was a significant drop from the 2012 wholesale trade of $275,152.
Click here for the full report:https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=&table=IA1700BASIC02&tid=ISLANDAREASCOMP2017.IA1700BASIC02&hidePreview=true&lastDisplayedRow=23&vintage=2017&layer=economicplace&g=&d=ECN%20Economic%20Census%20of%20Island%20Areas&mode=
