Note to Reviewer (RAS)

Note to Reviewer of 1220-0042

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a Federal/State establishment survey of wage and salary workers designed to produce data on current detailed occupational employment and wages for each Metropolitan Statistical Area and Metropolitan Division as well as by detailed industry classification. OES survey data assists in the development of employment and training programs established by the Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1998 and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998.

The OES program was granted OMB Clearance on 10/1/10. In addition to approving standard survey activities, OES was authorized to conduct 2 Response Analysis Surveys (RAS). OES decided to combine the 2 response analysis surveys into one in order to further reduce respondent burden, and maximize available resources. As part of that approved information collection, OES agreed to submit the Response Analysis Survey questionnaire to OMB through a non-substantive change request.

A brief overview of the Response Analysis Survey is outlined below.

During FY2012, BLS will conduct a Response Analysis Survey (RAS) on up to 3,000 OES respondents to ensure accurate data collection. These respondents will be contacted between 2 weeks and 2 months after completing the OES survey. Using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview instrument, OES will examine 2 separate issues. The first issue surrounds the consistency of tip reporting. Currently, not much is known about employers’ record-keeping of employee tips and whether they are systematically reported. The second part of the RAS will focus on employer’s record keeping practices, how they compile information to report for the OES survey, and respondent burden level.

Currently BLS plans to conduct a 20 minute phone interview of 1,500 OES respondents from all industries and sizes. The study will require an estimated 500 burden hours. All RAS activities will be conducted in accordance with the OES OMB Clearance approval. The entire RAS will be completed in FY 2012.

In order to maximize the information on tips, OES will oversample tipped industries. Tipped industries include the following:

NAICS:

485310

485320

487110

487210

487990

492110

492210

561210

713120

713210

721110

721120

721191

721199

722110

722211

722212

722213

722310

722320

722330

722410

812111

812112

812113