FROM: David Talan, Chief
Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover
SUBJECT: Non-substantive Change Request for OMB Clearance of the QCEW Business Supplement (QBS)
The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages Program (QCEW) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is requesting a non-substantive change for three items related to the QBS. The OMB control number for this survey is 1220-0198 and it expires on 7/31/2024.
Full Cognitive Report
The full cognitive report from 2022 BRS survey test is attached.
Enhanced Instructions for Reporting Zero
QCEW is requesting to modify the instructions of the section headers to include instructions for respondents to enter zeros, when applicable, rather than leave question responses blank. Updated questionnaire, with these updated instructions, is attached.
Email Sample Pilot
In the OMB clearance package for the 2022 BRS, QCEW was approved to update sampling methodology to include email address in the sample criteria. QCEW is modifying this request to instead conduct a small pilot test of this updated sampling methodology to inform potential future use.
Small units (annual average employment <4) are excluded from the ARS but are included in the QBS samples. When these QBS sample units do not have an email address, the cost of printing and mailing a survey request is about $.50 per unit. This test is intended to inform whether email addresses can be added to the sampling criteria for small units (AAE < 4) to reduce survey costs. The test will inform BLS of potential impact on estimates and standard errors.
Estimated Annualized Respondent Cost and Hour Burden for additional sample
Activity |
No. of Respondents |
No. of Responses per Respondent |
Total Responses |
Average Burden (Hours) |
Total Burden (Hours) |
Hourly Wage Rate |
Total Burden Cost |
QBS 2022-1 (previously approved) |
80,000 |
1 |
80,000 |
5/60 |
6667 |
27.74 |
$184,933.33 |
QBS-2022 Sample Pilot |
5,073 |
1 |
5,073 |
2/60 |
169.1 |
$27.74 |
$4,690.84 |
Total |
85,073 |
-- |
85,073 |
-- |
6836 |
-- |
$189,624.17 |
In general, questionnaire completion time is estimated to average 5 minutes. The estimated burden of 5 minutes per respondent was calculated based on the QBS pilot conducted under OMB Control Number 1220-0141. For the smallest establishments in the survey, with employment < 4, we expect the burden is much closer to 2 minutes on average.
The additional estimated burden for the 2022 BRS is expected to be 169.1 hours.
The cost to respondents is based on employer costs for wages, salaries, and benefits for Office and Administrative Support occupations and was obtained from the BLS National Compensation Survey, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation program. This rate was $27.74/hour based on December 2020 data.
The additional cost to respondents for the 2022 BRS additional sample is expected to be $4,690.83.
Please contact Emily Thomas at [email protected] or (202) 691-6441 if there are any questions concerning this request.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Thomas, Emily - BLS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-07-29 |