Supporting Statement for Requests for OMB Approval
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
1. Necessity of Collection:
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) collects data on job vacancies, labor hires, and labor separations. The data can be used as demand-side indicators of labor shortages. These indicators of labor shortages at the national level will greatly enhance policy makers' understanding of imbalances between the demand for and supply of labor. Presently there is no other economic indicator of the demand for labor with which to assess the presence of labor shortages in the U.S. labor market. The availability of unfilled jobs - the number of job vacancies or the vacancy rate - is an important measure of tightness of job markets, parallel to existing measures of unemployment.
JOLTS statistics reveal structural labor market conditions, such as the effectiveness of job matching and training processes, the implications of unemployment insurance and welfare, and deficient demand for labor.
Title 29, chapter 1, part 2 of United States Code authorizes JOLTS data collection.
2. Description of the Information Collected:
The information is collected once a month at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Atlanta Data Collection Center (DCC), Atlanta, Georgia. It is collected using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), Touchtone Data Entry (TDE), and fax. For the next survey round, an establishment is in the sample for 24 months.
Upon receiving the selected sample, the sample units are distributed among the Atlanta DCC interviewers. The interviewer then conducts address refinement. Address refinement requires interviewers to confirm correct contact information for an establishment. Once this has been done, the enrollment package is printed and mailed to the respondent. During the first six months of collection, the interviewer calls the respondent and conducts the interview over the phone using CATI. The first month includes clarification on the reporting unit. During the sixth month interview, the interviewer prepares the respondent for rollover to fax or TDE. Each respondent is encouraged to report all remaining months of data using fax or TDE.
There are 6 data elements collected by the form. Those elements are Total Employment, Total Number of Job Openings, Total Hires, Quits, Layoffs and Discharges, and Other Separations. Quits, Layoffs and Discharges, and Other Separations comprise Total Separations.
The reference period for Total Employment is the pay period including the 12th of the month. The reference period for Job Openings is the last business day of the month. Hires and Separations are requested for the entire month.
The information is published monthly at the NAICS Supersector level for the U.S and total non-agriculture for the major Census regions. The data are made public via press releases and the BLS Web Site. The data are used by BLS economists in their efforts to interpret and report labor market developments. Businesses use the data to compare their own turnover rates to a national figure. JOLTS data are useful to academics studying labor economics. Policy analysts can use the data to track the business cycle.
3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden:
JOLTS collects data using CATI for the first six months a unit is in the sample. JOLTS then encourages use of TDE technology in collecting data after a sample unit's sixth month in the sample. Fax is another alternative for collection. Both of these options allow the respondent to save time in that they do not have to process and mail back the form. The initial six months reporting via CATI is necessary to help the respondent understand the form and data requested.
Although every attempt is made to schedule CATI interviews at the most convenient time for respondents, TDE or fax allow respondents an even greater flexibility in responding at their most convenient time.
Respondents who are not able to break out Separations into Quits, Layoffs and Discharges, and Other Separations, are routed through TDE in such a way as to only report Total Separations. This use of TDE reduces their response time and their overall burden.
4. Identification of Duplication and Availability or Similar Information:
Extensive research using libraries, other statistical agencies, and the Internet has not identified similar information. Some academics have made use of proxies such as help wanted indexes which fall short of accurate measurement.
5. Small Businesses:
The information requested is readily available in both small and large firms. Special attention was paid to selecting reference periods for data elements that were easily understandable to all respondents.
The JOLTS sampling frame is stratified by geographic Region, Industry Supersector, and employment size class. A stratified sample is allocated using the Neyman allocation methodology. This stratification and allocation methodology ensures that businesses within each stratum are sampled at an appropriate rate.
6. Less Frequent Conduct of Study:
As an indicator of the demand for labor that would be parallel to existing measures of unemployment, less frequent conduct of study would diminish the ability of BLS to produce meaningful statistical estimates. In addition, it would prevent the estimates from being used as a leading indicator of business cycles and current economic trends.
7. Special Circumstances:
JOLTS releases data rates and levels on a monthly basis, therefore requiring information on a monthly basis to support the monthly estimate.
8. Consultation with Persons Outside BLS:
No comments were received as a result of the Federal Register notice published in Volume 70, No. 217 on November 10, 2005.
During the original development of the JOLTS concepts and forms, the JOLTS form was sent to seven experts for their comments regarding the data elements to be collected. The comments were solicited to ensure that the form collected only essential data elements and/or appropriate breakouts. The result is a form that imposes the least respondent burden while capturing data essential to produce a quality economic indicator.
Reviewers of Form:
Katharine Abraham Past Commissioner, BLS
Carolyn Bagin Center for Clear Communications, Inc.
Dan Hamermesh University of Texas
Harry Holzer Chief Economist, DOL/Michigan State University
Dan Sullivan Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
William Wascher National Bureau of Economic Research/
Bank for International Settlements
Joyce Zickler Federal Reserve - DC
9. Gifts or Payments to Respondents:
There will be no gifts or payments to respondents.
10. Confidential Responses:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner's Order 3-04 "Confidential Nature of BLS Records," explains the Bureau's policy on confidentiality:
Policy. In conformance with existing law and Departmental regulations, it is the policy of the BLS that:
Individually identifiable data collected or maintained by, or under the auspices of, the BLS for exclusively statistical purposes and under pledge of confidentiality shall be treated in a manner that will ensure that the data will be used only for statistical purposes and will be accessible only to authorized persons.
Pre-release economic data, including embargoed data, prepared for release to the public will not be disclosed or used in an unauthorized manner before they officially have been released, and will be accessible only to authorized persons.
This policy remains in effect.
The front page of the JOLTS form indicates that “The Bureau of Labor Statistics, its employees, agents, and partner statistical agencies, will use the information you provide for statistical purposes only and will hold the information in confidence to the full extent permitted by law. In accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (Title 5 of Public Law 107-347) and other applicable federal laws, your responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form without your informed consent.”
The Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) safeguards the confidentiality of individually identifiable information acquired under a pledge of confidentiality by controlling access to, and uses made of, such information. CIPSEA includes fines and penalties for any knowing and willful disclosure of individually identifiable information by an officer, employee, or agent of the BLS.
11. Sensitive Questions:
No sensitive questions will be asked.
12. Burden of Collection:
Explanation of how the total burden hours were derived for fiscal years 2006-2009 is illustrated below.
(April 2006 - September 2006)
Annual Average
Form Responses Response Time
---------------------------------------------------------
CATI 33,210 10 minutes
TDE 15,940 10 minutes
Fax 17,270 10 minutes
Estimated fiscal year 2006 total Burden Hours are 11,070.
Estimated fiscal year 2006 total Burden Cost is $185,201.
(October 2006 - September 2007)
Annual Average
Form Responses Response Time
---------------------------------------------------------
CATI 66,420 10 minutes
TDE 31,880 10 minutes
Fax 34,540 10 minutes
Estimated fiscal year 2007 total Burden Hours are 22,140.
Estimated fiscal year 2007 total Burden Cost is $381,472.
(October 2007 – September 2008)
Annual Average
Form Responses Response Time
---------------------------------------------------------
CATI 66,420 10 minutes
TDE 31,880 10 minutes
Fax 34,540 10 minutes
Estimated fiscal year 2008 total Burden Hours are 22,140.
Estimated fiscal year 2008 total Burden Cost is $392,985.
(October 2008 – March 2009)
Annual Average
Form Responses Response Time
---------------------------------------------------------
CATI 33,210 10 minutes
TDE 15,940 10 minutes
Fax 17,270 10 minutes
Estimated fiscal year 2009 total Burden Hours are 11,070.
Average FY Burden Hours are 22,140.
Average FY Burden Cost is $387,339.
Average Calendar Burden Hours are 22,140.
Average Calendar Burden Cost is $387,339.
Burden cost was calculated by obtaining the hourly wage rate for Human Resource Assistants, except Payroll and Timekeeping, as determined by Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. The wage rate for 2004, the most current year, was $15.77. This base was increased by 3% for each of the years until FY 2009. The hourly rate was then multiplied by the number of hours required for responding (burden hours). The resulting hourly wages used for FY 2006, FY 2007, FY 2008, and FY 2009 are $16.73, $17.23, $17.75, and $18.28 respectively.
Respondents to each survey round remain in a panel for 24 months. Fiscal year 2007 is representative of a complete year as it includes 12 months.
Fiscal year 2009 reflects the first half of that year only as the OMB approval date for three complete calendar years expires March 31, 2009.
13. Capital/Start-up Cost
There are no capital/start-up or operating/maintaining costs.
14. Cost to the Federal Government:
The annual JOLTS budget is $3.7 million.
15. Changes in Burden:
The adjustment in requested hours for this clearance is a result of a more precise measurement of the sample. The last JOLTS request for clearance was prepared in late 2002, using a sample size of 16,000 units. However, this was an estimate established while the JOLTS sample was still stratified using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) coding system. In early 2003 the sample was redrawn using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). It was not until this point that a precise measure of a NAICS-based sample size could be captured. This more precise measure of sample size was slightly (400 units) larger than the previous estimate.
This is ongoing collection. The burden assumes a 10% out-of-business rate and a 25% refusal rate (including respondents who drop out of the survey).
16. Publication Plans/Schedule:
The JOLTS program releases data on a monthly basis. The release is available within 30 - 60 working days of the survey reference month. Regular monthly releases began April 15, 2004.
17. OMB Approval Expiration Date:
N/A
18. Exception to Certification Statement:
There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in Item 19 "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions," of OMB Form 83-I.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Supporting Statement for Requests for OMB Approval |
| Author | Brian Riordon |
| Last Modified By | WOHLFORD_J |
| File Modified | 2006-02-06 |
| File Created | 2005-09-29 |