Business Administration Resource Guide: Government Links

As explained in its mission statement, "the Commerce Department is singularly focused on making U.S. companies more innovative at home and more competitive abroad, so they can create jobs."

On its website, there are links to economic indicators, newsroom resources (fact sheets, press releases, etc.), and an "About Commerce" section that includes FAQs which are helpful in leading you to specific information. The Commerce Department's home webpage has links to its twelve bureaus, some of which you see listed below.

Source of national and regional economic statistics.
Source of economic statistics on U.S. industries.
Publisher of "Survey of Current Business."

With the population census done every ten years and the economic census done every five years, this site has lots of statistical data on not only the U.S. population (both socioeconomic and demographic factors), but also on the U.S. economy.

The ITA is a U.S. government resource for competing in the global marketplace.

Information on, and compliance assistance with, federal employment laws and regulations. Home of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Source of major economic indicators, employment-related statistics, and information on labor market conditions.

This is the regulatory agency for the securities (stocks and bonds) market. It maintains the EDGAR database of public company filings.

Contains the financial documents filed by public companies with the SEC.

This agency produces the monthly "Economic Indicators" publication and the annual "Economic Report of the President."

This office "is responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy and for overseeing trade negotiations with other countries." (Quote is from the 2011 U.S. Government Internet Directory.)

The federal government's portal for accessing government information and services via the Internet. Make use not only of the search-box feature, but also the resources found in the "Get Services," "Blog," "Explore Topics," "Find Government Agencies," "Popular Topics," and "Just for You" sections.

The United States government's "one-stop platform" to locate government services to help businesses.

"The federal government possesses a trove of big data—a commodity increasingly important to businesses, researchers and academics. So it is starting to open up that data to the public online at data.gov." (Quote is from "The People's Choice: Distrust" article in "The Wall Street Journal" of 7/19/13 that is included on the "About" page of the website as of 7/26/13.)

"FedStats is your one location for access to the full breadth of Federal statistical information." (Quote is from the website itself.)

The purpose of FedWorld is "to serve as the online locator service for a comprehensive inventory of information disseminated by the Federal Government." It is managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. (Quote is from the website itself.)

Provides free public access to the full text of official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

Use this site to find, apply for, and track federal grants.

A variety of federal forms (tax, personnel, legal, etc.) are available through this usa.gov search site.

"MyMoney.gov is the U.S. government's website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education." (Quote is from the website itself.)

Drop down the "Get Assistance" menu for helpful links.

A website created by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with information on how to invest wisely and written in such language as to be understandable to the average investor. You don't have to be a stockbroker to understand the information!

The mission of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives markets through sound regulation.

Designed by the U.S. Treasury Department for children, this site explains saving & investing, treasury securities, bonds, and the history of the U.S. public debt.

This site is for both consumers and businesses.

Statistics and other information on banking and individual banks, regional economic conditions, and consumer protection.

On this website of the nation's central banking system, you can find banking, economic, and consumer information.

You can find additional valuable Federal Reserve (Fed) information on the websites of each of the twelve Districts of the Fed.

The FTC works to protect consumers and to maintain competition in the marketplace.

"This portal to the U.S. Small Business Administration provides comprehensive resources for small businesses, small business owners, and prospective business owners. From these pages, you’ll find a wealth of information to help you manage your business from start to finish, expand your business through new programs and services, increase your business knowledge and productivity, and support your business with a team of experts found nowhere else in the world." (Quote is from the website.)

"In every US State and the District of Columbia, agencies are creating databases of useful information .... Since July 2007, librarians and other government information specialists have been working on identifying and annotating these databases in one place. We've chased across fifty state web sites so you don't have to!" (Quote is from the website itself.)

Choose the appropriate state from the list of state resources.

"The Guide to Law Online ... is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information." (Quote is from the Law Library of Congress' website.)

This collection "gathers, state by state, Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and regulations for the fifty states, plus D.C., and the U.S. territories and affiliated jurisdictions." (Quote is from the website itself.)

To get specific county information and links:
1) Click on the "About Counties" tab near the top.
2) Click on the "Find a County" link.

"One-stop access to the websites of thousands of state agencies and city and county governments" (Quote is from the website itself.)

"This database contains information gleaned from the home pages and websites of the fifty state legislatures, the District of Columbia and the Territories. You can select to view specific website content materials (such as, bills, press rooms, statutes) from all states, one state or a selected list of states." (Quote is from the website itself.)