The bureau has no data for the years since 1991, but a private survey this year suggests that the trend is growing.

"I do my own private survey on it," Stevens said in a telephone interview Monday.

And an overall economic index derived from a private survey of purchasing managers at 250 industrial companies fell to its lowest level since December 1982.

Some private surveys do not show spending dropping that much, and one predicts a slight increase.

In 1993, he released the results of a private survey demonstrating that most residents of his ward were against the initiative.

According to a private survey, at least 80 per cent are intending to leave the colony by the end of 1990.

We have relied on private surveys, political pontifications and guessing.

A private survey commissioned by a local publication holds that the church is the tallest.

The coastal commission says these private surveys are meaningless because the definition of what a public beach is changes daily, with the tides.

Government and private surveys indicate that about two-thirds of grocery shoppers use the nutrition labeling.