Note to Reviewer - Panel 5

Note to Reviewer of 1220-0182

The 2010 Congressional Appropriation tasked the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program with producing occupational employment and wage data on green jobs. This initiative will produce tabulations of occupational employment and wages in businesses that use green technologies and practices in their operations, as defined by BLS. 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved a clearance for the Occupational Employment Survey Forms Design and Pilot Testing for the BLS Green Practices and Processes Project through a Notice of Action, dated December 7, 2010. The purpose of that request for clearance was for the OES program to initiate a research project to understand the collection environment and learn what information establishments have available that would help BLS collect data on employment related to green technologies and practices within establishments. As part of that approved information collection, BLS agreed to submit changes in the pre-testing materials to OMB through a non-substantive change request. This request provides those updated materials.

The research project plan includes data collection forms design, panel testing, and follow-up interviews. Updates to the materials are outlined below.

• Data collection forms design - BLS plans to test web collection during this research project.

• Cover Letter v.1* – The letter has been modified to mention web reporting, and refers the respondent to the website for instructions on the web reporting.

• Cover Letter v.2* – The letter has been modified to mention web reporting, and provides respondents with instructions for web reporting in the survey package.

• Instructions for web reporting are now included with the package materials.

• The survey form has been modified to provide the website for accessing web reporting instructions.

• A fillable form is now included with the package materials.

• A follow-up postcard for the web panel is now included with the package materials.

• The fax form for panels 4 and 5 has been updated.

• Sample of IDCF data collection screens are now included with the package materials.

*The BLS will conduct a split panel test. Half of the web units will receive the web reporting instructions in their mail out package with letter version 2, and half will receive letter version 1.