Producer Price Index — Discontinued Industry Series

The Producer Price Index (PPI) Revision-Discontinued Series indexes reflect price movements for the net output of producers organized according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The dataset is compatible with a wide assortment of NAICS-based economic time series including productivity, production, employment, wages, and earnings.

The PPI universe consists of the output of all industries in the goods-producing sectors of the U.S. economy — mining, manufacturing, agriculture, fishing, and forestry — as well as natural gas, electricity, construction, and goods competitive with those made in the producing sectors, such as waste and scrap materials. As of January 2011, the PPI program covered more than three-quarters of the service sector's output, publishing data for selected industries in wholesale and retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; finance and insurance; real estate brokering, rental, and leasing; professional, scientific, and technical services; administrative, support, and waste management services; health care and social assistance; and accommodation.

To the extent possible, prices used in constructing the indexes are the actual revenue or net transaction prices producers receive for sales of their outputs. Scientific (probability) sampling techniques are used to select reporting establishments, products, and transactions for all types and volumes of output. Coverage includes roughly 500 mining and manufacturing industries and approximately 150 services industries. The PPI measures changes in prices received by domestic producers; import products are not priced in the survey. BLS collects over 100,000 price quotations each month covering over 600 industries and over 6,000 products and product categories.

Observations are monthly in most cases. Annual averages are available. All indexes are stored with one decimal place. Updates are usually available on or before the 15th day of the month following a given reference month. Effective with the release of the January 2004 data, the PPI program converted from the SIC System to the NAICS System. With the release of July 2004 indexes, the PPI produced a separate dataset for discontinued NAICS-based indexes.

References: BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 14, "Producer Prices", Online at http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch14.htm