2013-03528. Agency Information Collection Activities

AGENCY:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION:

Notice of Information Collection—Revised: Demographic Information on Applicants for Federal Employment.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Commission or EEOC) announces that it intends to revise a Commission form (Demographic Information on Applicants, OMB No. 3046-0046) to include disability status data.

DATES:

Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before April 16, 2013.

ADDRESSES:

Comments should be sent to the Executive Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 131 M Street, NE., Washington, DC 20507. As a convenience to commenters, the Executive Secretariat will accept comments totaling six or fewer pages by facsimile (“FAX”) machine. This limitation is necessary to assure access to the equipment. The telephone number of the fax receiver is [phone]. (This is not a toll-free number). Receipt of FAX transmittals will not be acknowledged, except that the sender may request confirmation of receipt by calling the Executive Secretariat staff at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (TTD). (These are not toll-free telephone numbers.) Instead of sending written comments to the EEOC, you may submit comments and attachments electronically at http://www.regulations.gov,, which is the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting comments. All comments received through this portal will be posted without change, including any personal information you provide. Copies of comments submitted by the public to the EEOC directly or through the Federal eRulemaking Portal will be available for review, by advance appointment only, at the Commission's library between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. or can be reviewed at http://www.regulations.gov. To schedule an appointment to inspect the comments at EEOC's library, contact the library staff at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (TTY). (These are not toll-free numbers.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Barbara Dougherty, Federal Sector Programs, Office of Federal Operations, 131 M Street NE., Washington, DC 20507, [phone] (voice); [phone] (TTY).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On July 26, 2010, President Obama issued Executive Order 13548, which directs Executive departments and agencies (hereafter “agencies”) to improve their efforts to employ Federal workers with disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of these individuals. OPM, in consultation with the White House (including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the EEOC has developed, as required by the EO 13548, model recruitment and hiring strategies for agencies to use to increase their employment of individuals with disabilities. (http://www.chcoc.gov/​transmittals/​TransmittalDetails.aspx?​TransmittalID=​3228#Attachment1) The strategies include collecting, maintaining, and analyzing applicant flow data and examining existing recruitment programs and hiring practices to identify and eliminate any barriers to recruiting/hiring individuals with disabilities and, in particular, individuals with targeted disabilities.

This Notice concerns revising the form (OMB No. 3046-0046) for the use by federal agencies in gathering data on the race, ethnicity, and sex of job applicants. This form is used by EEOC and other agencies to gauge progress and trends over time with respect to equal employment opportunity goals. The revision would add disability status of applicants to the collection, thereby allowing the agencies and EEOC to track progress toward meeting the recruitment and hiring strategies developed pursuant to EO 13548. The race and ethnicity categories in this form are consistent with the standards set by the Office of Management and Budget .^[1] The questions on disability and medical impairments are designed to allow federal agencies and the EEOC to determine the percentage of applicants to Federal jobs who might be considered “individuals with disabilities” under various approaches to defining the term. Among other things, the disability questions are designed to analyze the frequency with which people with “targeted disabilities” apply for positions with an agency, compare the percentage of applicants with functional disabilities to the percentage of working age people with such disabilities as recorded by the Census Bureau, and examine the number of applicants with medical impairments consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, and OMB regulation 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), the Commission solicits public comment on revising its form for use by federal agencies in gathering demographic information on applicants for federal employment. Comments are particularly invited on whether this collection of information will enable the Commission and federal agencies to:

(1) Evaluate whether the proposed data collection tool will have practical utility by enabling a federal agency to determine whether recruitment activities are effectively reaching all segments of the relevant labor pool in compliance with the laws enforced by the Commission and whether the agency's selection procedures allow all applicants to compete on a level playing field regardless of race, national origin, sex or disability status;

(2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

(3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and

(4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on applicants for federal employees who choose to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses.

Overview of This Information Collection

Collection Title: Demographic Information on Federal Job Applicants.

OMB Control No.: 3046-0046 .

Description of Affected Public: Individuals submitting applications for federal employment.

Number of Annual Responses: 5,800.

Estimated Time per Respondent: 3 minutes.

Total Annual Burden Hours (5,800 × 3)/60 = 290.

Annual Federal Cost: None.

Abstract: Under section 717 of Title VII and 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Commission is charged with reviewing and approving federal agencies plans to affirmatively address potential discrimination before it occurs. Pursuant to such oversight responsibilities, the Commission has established systems to monitor compliance with Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act by requiring federal agencies to evaluate their employment practices through the collection and analysis of data on the race, national origin, sex and disability status of applicants for both permanent and temporary employment.

Several federal agencies (or components of such agencies) have previously obtained separate OMB approval for the use of forms collecting data on the race, national origin, sex, and disability status of applicants. In order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and a proliferation of forms, the EEOC seeks approval for the use of a common form to be used by all federal agencies.

Response by applicants is optional. The information obtained will be used by federal agencies only for evaluating whether an agency's recruitment activities are effectively reaching all segments of the relevant labor pool, to gauge progress and trends over time with respect to equal opportunity goals, and to track progress toward meeting the recruitment and hiring strategies developed pursuant to EO 13548. The voluntary responses are treated in a highly confidential and anonymous manner, are not shared with those involved in the selection process or the supervisor (if the person is hired) and will not be placed in the employees' personnel file. The information is not provided to any panel rating the applications, to selecting officials, to anyone who can affect the application or to the public. Rather, the information is used in summary form to determine trends over many selections within a given occupational or organization area. No information from the form is entered into an official personnel file.

Burden Statement: Because of the predominant use of online application systems, which require only pointing and clicking on the selected responses, and because the form requests only eight questions regarding basic information, the EEOC estimates that an applicant can complete the form in approximately 3 minutes or less. Based on past experience, we expect that 5,800 applicants will choose to complete the form.

Once OMB approves the use of this common form, federal agencies may request OMB approval to use this common form without having to publish notices and request public comments for 60 and 30 days. Each agency must account for the burden associated with their use of the common form.

Dated: February 11, 2013.

For the Commission.

Jacqueline A. Berrien,

Chair.

Footnotes

1.  Office of Management and Budget. Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, Federal Register: 62: No.210, October 30. 1997, available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/​omb/​fedreg_​1997standards/​.