E9-20696. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

Title: 2009—2011 Company Organization Survey.

Form Number(s): NC-99001, NC-99007.

OMB Control Number: 0607-0444.

Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.

Burden Hours: 127,517.

Number of Respondents: 48,000.

Average Hours per Response: 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau is requesting an extension of the currently approved Company Organization Survey (COS) to conduct the 2009, 2010 and 2011 COS. This collection will direct inquiries to multi-establishment enterprises and selected single-establishment companies. The Census Bureau conducts the annual COS in order to update and maintain a central, multipurpose Business Register (BR). In particular, the COS supplies critical information on the organizational structure, operating characteristics, and employment and payroll of multi-location enterprises. The 2009-2011 COS collection will not differ from the 2008. The sample size will remain the same as in 2008 surveying 48,000 respondents.

Form NC-99001 is mailed to multi-location enterprises. We ask questions on ownership or control by a domestic parent, ownership or control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign affiliates; research and development, and employees from a professional employer organization. Establishment inquiries include questions on operational status, mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and annual payroll of establishments (see Attachment A, Item 5 of NC-99001).

In addition to the mailing of multi-location enterprises, the Census Bureau will mail Form NC-99007 to some large single-location enterprises that may have added some locations. Form NC-99007 contains questions on ownership and control by a domestic company, number of locations of operation, physical location, locations of operation, and inquiries on mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and annual payroll for each separate location.

The BR serves two fundamental purposes: First and most important, it provides sampling populations and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic surveys and censuses, and it serves as an integral part of the statistical foundation underlying those programs. Essential for this purpose is the BR's ability to identify all known United States business establishments and their parent companies. Further, the BR must accurately record basic business attributes needed to control sampling and enumeration. These attributes include industrial and geographic classifications, measures of size and economic activity, ownership characteristics, and contact information (for example, name and address).

Second, it provides establishment data that serve as the basis for the annual County Business Patterns (CBP) statistical series. The CBP reports present data on number of establishments, first quarter payroll, annual payroll, and mid-March employment summarized by industry and employment size class for the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, counties, and county-equivalents. No other annual or more frequent series of industry statistics provides comparable detail, particularly for small geographic areas.

Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit institutions; Farms; State, local or Tribal governments.

Frequency: Annually.

Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 182, 195, 224, and 225.

OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, [phone].

Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer, [phone], Department of Commerce, Room 7845, 14th and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at [e-mail]).

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax [phone]) or e-mail ([e-mail]).

Dated: August 24, 2009.

Glenna Mickelson,

Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.