Economic Census Addendum Memo

Generic Information Collection Request

Request: The purpose of this letter is to request additional burden hours for the 2017 Economic Census New Question Testing research. On October 4, 2016, we received additional new questions from key stakeholders and data users. We will be conducting cognitive interviews to test this additional proposed new content.

Purpose: These additional questions include petroleum capacity, construction land values, and natural gas costs and revenue.

As with the previously approved request, the goals of this research are:

• to see if respondents can understand and answer these questions correctly;

• to see what, if any, changes are necessary to the proposed wording.

Population of Interest: We plan to conduct up to 30 additional cognitive interviews with respondents from companies that participated in the 2012 Economic Census.

Timeline: Testing will take place from October through December 2016.

Language: English only.

Method: Researchers from the Data Collection Methodology and Research Branch will conduct these interviews over the phone. Staff from other areas in the Economic Directorate will help identify companies to contact, assemble recruiting lists, and may participate in the interviews, as they are able. Interviews may be audio-recorded, with the participants' permission, to facilitate accurate summarization of the results. We also will inform participants that their response is voluntary, the information they provide is confidential, and that only employees involved in the research project will see that information.

Because the questions are industry-specific and will not be asked of all respondents during the Census, each interview will only involve 2-4 questions. The attached protocol lists the additional questions and indicates the industries for which these questions will be asked and tested. Because these interviews will cover a small number of questions, we still anticipate conducting the majority of the interviews over the phone. We may supplement the telephone interviews with in-person interviews with respondents from companies in the Washington, D.C. area.

Sample Recruitment: We will recruit large companies from the specific industries of which the proposed questions will be asked. We want to meet with participants who completed the 2012 Economic Census and will be most likely to fill out the 2017 Economic Census. After recruitment, we will give participants a follow-up reminder (phone, email, or fax) of their appointments.

Use of Incentive: We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study.

Length of interview: The length of the interviews is expected to average 30 minutes. We expect to make up to five recruiting calls for every interview scheduled, and each recruiting call will last an average of five minutes. Thus, the total estimated additional burden for this set of interviews is approximately 27.5 hours ((30 companies X 30 minutes) + (150 companies X 5 minutes)).

Protocol: Enclosed is a copy of the additional questions and the cognitive interview protocol for the questions.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Jennifer Beck

Data Collection and Methodology Research Branch

Economic and Statistical Methods Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-1736

[email protected]

Enclosures

cc:
Ron Jarmin          (ADEP) with enclosures

Nick Orsini (ADEP)” “

Ian Thomas (EWD) “ “

Andrew Baer (EWD) “ “

Julius Smith (EWD) “ “

Cynthia Hollingsworth (EWD) “ “

Theresa Riddle (EMD) “ “

Kevin Deardorff (EWD) “ “

Chris Blackburn (EWD) “ “

William Davie (ESMD) “ “

Carol Caldwell (ESMD) “           ”

Carma Hogue (ESMD) “ “

Diane Willimack (ESMD) “ “

Amy Anderson Riemer (ESMD) “ “

Jennifer Hunter Childs (ADRM)” “

Jasmine Luck (ADRM)” “

Danielle Norman (PCO)“ “

Mary Lenaiyasa (PCO)“