The public sector is a rich source of background economic data for analysis purposes, but finding firm-specific information can be challenging. Try, for example: Bureau of Economic Analysis- includes regional, national, and international data, as well as an overview of the U.S. economy
- Bureau of Labor Statistics includes a great variety of time series viewable on screen, especially (un)employment and prices, some local.
- Bureau of the Census data on the site is extensive and open to the creative imagination to apply it to the firm--such marketing and competition-related issues as projections of demographics, including household composition, nationally and by state can be addressed with census data.
- County Business Patterns under the auspices of the Bureau of the Census, this data site contributes substantially to uncovering local-level microeconomic patterns.
- Data FERRETT represents the Federal Electronic Research Review, Extraction, and Tabulation Tool, whereby the user can compile and tailor datasets drawn from the Census Bureau's and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' databases.
- Department of Commerce the umbrella organization to some of the above and as such an entree to many others one could try for background operating-conditions data.
- Fedstats- leads to data published by more than 100 separate federal agencies.
- Federal Reserve Board - h full text research and discussion papers; minutes, testimony, and speeches of Fed officials; statistics
- Government Accountability Office - offers the current (even daily) investigative reports of this "arm" of the Congress, in full text and in abstracts
- Regional Economic Accounts Gross domestic product, and personal income and employment
