WDQI Supplemental Justification

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) Round V

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) Round V Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), announces the availability of approximately $10 million in grant funds authorized by the Section 171(c)(2) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) and section 169 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to support the development and expansion of State workforce longitudinal administrative databases over a three-year grant period. Collecting longitudinal workforce and education data will provide a comprehensive picture of workers' earnings throughout their careers. Through analysis, these data will demonstrate the relationship between education and training programs, as well as the additional contribution of the provision of other employment services. These grants will help support the emphasis on accountability and transparency that is a key feature of the recently enacted WIOA.

We expect to award approximately eight projects of up to $1.2 million each for a 36-month period of performance. Eligible applicants for these grants are State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands which did not receive a Round IV award under solicitation SGA-DFA-PY-13-05; and have received no more than one award through SGA-DFA-PY-09-10 (Round 1), SGA-DFA-PY-11-01 (Round 2), and SGA-DFA-PY-12-07 (Round 3). SWAs that have received two WDQI grant awards, as well as SWAs that received a WDQI grant award through SGA-DFA-PY-13-05 are not eligible to apply. Additionally, applicants must be members of the Wage Record Interchange System (WRIS) 2 at the time grant funds are released and must abide by the WRIS2 Data Sharing Agreement (DSA).

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance,” separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, 2) Project Budget, 3) Project Narrative, and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 75 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This FOA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 15 applications from an equal number of respondents.  The ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

15 applications x 20 hours = 300 hours.

The DOL has increased the October 2014, average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $29.29 per hour by 40 percent (total $41.01 per hour) to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—October 2014, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_11072014.pdf at page 32.

300 hours x $41.01 = $12,303.00

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 15 respondents, 15 responses, 300 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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