Employment Projections Program Stakeholder Outreach

Request for Approval under the “DOL Departmental Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

(OMB Control Number: 1225-0088)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Employment Projections Program Stakeholder Outreach

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this information collection is to obtain feedback from customers (aka data users; web site visitors) of data and information produced by the Employment Projections program. This includes users of the Occupational Outlook Handbook website; Career Outlook website; and Employment Projections. The feedback will be used to better understand the customer experience with these data and information products and whether these products meet their needs (i.e., the information is easy to navigate, or data is easy to use and includes scope and detail that is useful). The information collected will be used to inform future changes for these products.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents are individuals who are broadly considered customers of Employment Projections data and information products. This information and data is available through the BLS website (three specific website pages) and is accessed by a variety of uses (such as, Human Resources staff, students, job seekers, businesses, and economists).

Customers of these products is defined as frequent or casual (including first time) users of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Career Outlook articles, Employment Projections data users, or those who subscribe to receive updates to these data and products. Respondents may represent business leaders, or members of the general population that are seeking information to guide career and employment decisions. This can include (but not limited to) HR professionals, students, career counselors, job seekers, economists, or labor researchers.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Douglas Williams

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Customers of the Occupational Outlook Handbook	4,000	8 minutes	533.3 hours
Customers of Career Outlook	2,500	4 minutes	166.7 hours
Customers of Employment Projections	4,000	6 minutes	400 hours
Totals	10,500		1,100 hours

The number of respondents was estimated based on approximately 10% response rate to single email invitation to subscriber list. Additional response is expected from web product page visits where visitors can click a banner link to complete the survey. Detail on the number of subscribers to each selected product is provided in the next section on the selection of targeted respondents.

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $4126.80 (estimated based on an average GS-14/5 salary rate of $68.78 and an estimated 20 hours to develop each (3 total) survey, post and submit, receive responses, and analyze and report on the responses.)

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

The survey(s) will solicit responses from customers using various methods:

• Include a link in a banner on the product survey homepage for each product under review (Occupational Outlook Handbook; Career Outlook; and Employment Projections.

Additionally, an email frame of customers who are subscribed to receive updates for these products will receive a request to complete a survey for each product subscription. Survey invitations will only be sent once for each product. A person may subscribe to more than one product (or subscriber lists may be shared between products) and therefore receive multiple survey invitations. To minimize confusion, surveys invitations for each product will be sent on separate days and will include text explaining subsequent invitations are separate from previous invitations and that they may receive additional invitations.

Subscriber counts are provided for each product under review. The email invitation schedule is also included.

Product Count Invitation Schedule

Occupational Outlook Handbook 39,190 Day 1

Career Outlook 22,264 Day 3

Employment Projections 39,190 Day 5

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [X] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Attachments:

Attachment 1 – Email Requests to complete Survey

Attachment 2 – Survey Instruments (OOH, Career Outlook, EP)