Proposed Information Collection Request Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations; Business Birth Pilot Study

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Proposed Information Collection Request Submitted for Public

Comment and Recommendations; Business Birth Pilot Study

ACTION: Notice.

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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

with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing

collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction

Act of 1995. This program helps to ensure that requested data can be

provided in the desired format, reporting burden is minimized,

reporting forms 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 new ``Business Birth Pilot Study.''

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 on or before January 2, 1996.

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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ms. Kurz on 202-606-7628 (this is not a toll free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is initiating a major redesign of

the Current Employment Statistics (CES) monthly payroll survey,

including further research into methods for directly capturing data on

new business births as an integrated part of a probability sample

design. The purpose of this collection is to explore a procedure for

estimating business birth employment utilizing sampled data. An ongoing

sample of business births would be maintained in order to produce birth

estimates and to accurately reflect the changes in employment of

business births from one benchmark period to the next.

II. Current Actions

The CES program is a monthly payroll survey of nearly 400,000

business establishments. It provides estimates of employment, average

weekly hours, and average hourly earnings, by industry, for the Nation,

States, and approximately 270 large metropolitan areas. These data are

used by National as well as State policy makers to analyze current

economic conditions and to set economic policy.

The advantage of CES data to its users is timely release of data at

industry and geographic levels with an annual benchmark to full

population counts. However the CES has limitations which hamper its

ability to accurately reflect current monthly employment trends: the

lack of a probability-based sample design and the absence of a method

for directly measuring employment resulting from business births.

A sound statistical procedure which utilize a probability sample

selected from a comprehensive list of business births, in conjunction

with population counts available from that list, would provide for

reliable estimates to be made for business birth employment at the

National and State levels by major industry division.

The data collected from this pilot survey would be used to estimate

business births to complement the redesigned CES survey based on a

probability sample design. In addition, a longitudinal data base of the

birth units would be kept to track the trend of these firms in

comparison to the ``non-birth'' units in the CES survey. This

information would be used to

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improve the CES design by developing the best approach to incorporate

births into the CES sample.

This will reduce or eliminate the need for substantial ``bias

adjustments'' currently applied to the CES sample.

This survey will utilize computer assisted telephone interview

(CATI) techniques to administer the birth questionnaire to sampled

units. Those units that are classified as births will further answer

questions on employment and Standard Industrial Class (SIC)

verification. These units will be asked only to submit employment

figures for each subsequent month during a two-year period by either

CATI or Touch-Tone Data Entry (TDE).

The sample design calls for the probability of small establishments

being selected to be smaller than the probability for larger

establishments. This will reduce response burden for small business.

Type of Review: New.

Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Title: Business Birth Pilot Study.

OMB Number:

Frequency: Monthly.

Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit

institutions.

Number of Respondents: 12,000.

Estimated Time for Response: 5 minutes.

Total Burden Hours: 2320 hours.

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 ICR; they also will become a matter of public record.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 26th day of October, 1995.

Peter T. Spolarich,

Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[FR Doc. 95-27100 Filed 10-31-95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4510-24-M