[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 165 (Tuesday, August 26, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45276-45278]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-22654]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance
consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies
an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of
information in
[[Page 45277]]
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95) (44 U.S.C.
3506 (c)(2)(a)). This program helps to ensure that requested data can
be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial
resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood,
and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be
properly assessed. Currently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is
soliciting comments concerning the proposed revision of the ``Multiple
Worksite Report and the Report of Federal Employment and Wages.''
A copy of the proposed information collection request (ICR) can be
obtained by contacting the individual listed below in the address
section of this notice.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
address section below on or before October 27, 1997. BLS is
particularly interested in comments which help the agency to:
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
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;
Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
Minimize the burden of the collection of information on
those who are 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 submissions of responses.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Karin G. Kurz, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 3255,
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212. Ms. Kurz can be
reached on 202-606-7628 (this is not a toll free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The ES-202 Program is a Federal/State cooperative effort in which
monthly employment and quarterly wage data are compiled. These data are
collected from State Quarterly Contribution Reports submitted to State
Employment Security Agencies (SESAs) by employers subject to State
Unemployment Insurance (UI) laws. The ES-202 Report, produced for each
calendar quarter, is a summary of these employer (micro level) data by
industry at the county level. Similar data for Federal Government
employees covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal
Employees (UCFE) Program also are included in each State report. These
data are submitted by all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, and the Virgin Islands to BLS which then summarizes these macro
level data to produce totals for the States and the Nation. The ES-202
Report provides a virtual census of nonagricultural employees and their
wages, with about 47 percent of the workers in agriculture covered as
well.
As part of the ES-202 Program, the States also send micro level
employment and wages data, supplemented with the names and addresses of
employers, to BLS. These States' data are used to create the BLS
sampling frame, known as the Business Establishment List. This file
represents one of the best sources of detailed industrial and
geographical data on employers and is used as the sampling frame for
most BLS surveys. The Business Establishment List includes individual
employers' employment and wages data along with associated business
identification information that is maintained by each State to
administer the UI program as well as the UCFE program.
For employers having only a single physical location (worksite) in
the State and, thus, operating under a single assigned industrial and
geographical code, the data from the States' UI accounting file are
sufficient for BLS statistical purposes. Such data, however, are
inadequate for BLS statistical purposes for those employers having
multiple establishments or engaged in multiple industrial activities
within the State. In such cases, the employer's Quarterly Contributions
Report reflects only Statewide employment and wages, and is not
disaggregated by establishment or worksite. More detailed information
is required to create a sampling frame and meet the needs of several
ongoing Federal/State statistical programs. As a result of the Multiple
Worksite Report, improved establishment business identification data
elements have been incorporated into and maintained on the Business
Establishment List. The establishment identification data elements that
are included in the Business Establishment List are the physical
location address, secondary name (division, trade name, subsidiary,
etc.), and reporting unit description (store number, plant name or
number, etc.) for each worksite of single-establishment and multi-
establishment employers.
Employers with more than one establishment reporting under the same
UI account number within a State are asked to complete the Multiple
Worksite Report if the sum of the employment in all of their secondary
establishments is ten or greater. (The primary worksite is defined as
the establishment with the greatest number of employees.) Upon receipt
of the first Multiple Worksite Report form, each employer is asked to
supply business location identification information. Thereafter, this
reported information is computer-printed on the Multiple Worksite
Report each quarter. The employer is asked to verify the accuracy of
the business identification information and provide the employment and
wages for each worksite for the quarter. By using a standardized form,
the reporting burden on many large employers, especially those engaged
in multiple economic activities at various locations across numerous
States, has been reduced.
Comparable to the Multiple Worksite Report, the function of the
Report of Federal Employment and Wages is to collect employment and
wage data for each installation of a Federal agency. The Report of
Federal Employment and Wages aids in the development and maintenance of
business identification information by installation. The Report of
Federal Employment and Wages was modeled after the Multiple Worksite
Report and is used only to collect data from Federal agencies covered
by the UCFE Program.
No other standardized report is available to collect current
establishment-level employment and wages data by SESAs for statistical
purposes each quarter. Also, no other standardized report is available
currently to collect installation-level Federal employment and wages
data by SESAs for statistical purposes.
II. Current Actions
BLS has taken steps to help reduce employer reporting burden by
developing a standardized format for employers to use to send these
data to the States in an electronic medium. BLS also established an
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Collection Center to improve and
expedite the Multiple Worksite Report collection process. Employers who
complete the Multiple Worksite Report for multi-location businesses now
can submit employment and wages information on any electronic medium
(tape, cartridge, diskette, or computer-to-computer) directly to the
data collection center,
[[Page 45278]]
rather than to each State agency separately. The data collection center
then distributes the appropriate data to the respective States.
The confidentiality statement used on the survey forms, which is
very similar to one of the alternative statements used earlier with
this program, is as follows:
The information collected on this form by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics and the State agencies cooperating in its statistical
programs will be used for statistical and Unemployment Insurance
program purposes, and other purposes in accordance with law.
BLS is submitting a request for three-year clearance of the MWR
with this confidentiality statement. The statement conforms to the
following factors:
BLS uses of the data are exclusively statistical.
BLS may share the data with other Federal agencies for
statistical purposes; however, as in the past, BLS will not share a
State's confidential ES-202 data with another Federal agency unless
that State has given BLS written permission to do so.
BLS makes no confidentiality statement regarding State
uses of the data.
In some States, uses are not exclusively statistical.
Type of Review: Revision.
Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Title: Multiple Worksite Report (MWR) and the Report of Federal
Employment and Wages (RFEW).
OMB Number: 1220-0134.
Frequency: Quarterly.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit institutions; Not-
for-profit institutions; Federal Government; and State, Local or Tribal
Government.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average time
Form number Total Respondent Total per response Total burden
respondents responses (minutes) hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLS 3020 (MWR)................................ 112,666 Non-Federal............................. 450,664 22.2 166,746
BLS 3021 (RFEW)............................... 2,154 Federal................................. 8,616 22.2 3,188
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals:................................. 114,820 ........................................ 459,280 .............. 169,934
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): $0.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a
matter of public record.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 21st day of August, 1997.
W. Stuart Rust, Jr.,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 97-22654 Filed 8-25-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-M
