Supporting Statement B

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Supporting Statement Part B for the
Intermittent Survey of Businesses
(FR 1374; OMB No. 7100-0302)
Summary
For all information collections that involve surveys or require a statistical methodology,
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is required to provide a complete
justification and explanation of the use of such a methodology. For collections that employ
surveys without such a methodology, the Board should be prepared to justify its decision not to
use statistical methods in any case where such methods might reduce burden or improve
accuracy of results.
Background
Prior to the 2002 implementation of this survey, the System found it helpful to collect
real-time information on an ad hoc basis from the business community. This information
typically reflected current business conditions and ongoing developments in the economy as well
as topical issues. Prior to 2002, however, the System limited its contacts to fewer than nine firms
and asked open-ended questions. The Board believes that it is valuable to gather information
from a broader variety of relevant firms and ask targeted questions to improve the System’s
understanding of the current economic situation and outlook. An in-depth understanding of these
types of special issues can be more accurately obtained in real time through direct inquiries with
contacts at relevant entities. Results derived from the collected information are distributed both
to Board members and to the presidents of the Reserve Banks. The information is used by the
System to provide an additional view of current economic conditions.
In 2010, the respondent panel was revised to include state and local governments as
warranted by economic conditions. At that time, understanding how these governments were
allocating funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was of particular
interest. Because spending by state and local governments currently accounts for about
11 percent of total Gross Domestic Product, understanding developments in this sector helps the
System better understand the likely path for overall economic activity. In March 2020, the Board
discontinued the surveys conducted solely by the Board, as they had not been conducted in
recent prior years and did not foresee a need to administer those surveys in the future. This
information is not available from other sources.
Universe and Respondent Selection
The FR 1374 panel comprises approximately 1,500 businesses, and as warranted by
economic conditions, state and local governments.
Procedures for Collecting Information
The topics discussed with the respondents are time sensitive, and the questions vary with
the topic. There is no standard reporting form because typically some of the questions change

with each survey. For each survey, the Board prepares questions in advance of specific topical
interest and determines a relevant target group of firms to contact. In addition, questions related
to other time-sensitive, ad hoc topics related to how businesses are experiencing salient aspects
of current economic conditions may be included. Examples of previous ad hoc topics include
experiences with hiring qualified workers, restraints on hiring practices, and the use of changes
to wages and salaries to retain existing employees.
Usually, these surveys are conducted using an online survey tool, such as Qualtrics, to
collect responses from purchasing managers, economists, or other knowledgeable individuals at
selected, relevant businesses, and occasionally state and local governments. Occasionally, the
survey will be conducted via telephone or email. If conducted by telephone, the discussions last
approximately fifteen minutes. If conducted using email or an online survey tool, the response
times are likely to be shorter. Each Reserve Bank tabulates its survey results and sends them via
email to the Board. The Board then compiles the Reserve Bank-level results into an overall
summary memo. The tabulation and the summary, along with the submissions from the
individual Reserve Banks, are then circulated to the members of the Board and Reserve Bank
presidents. Each Reserve Bank may use its own district-level results for any official business
purposes, including research that leads to publication, to the extent consistent with any
confidentiality commitments made to the contacts.
Methods to Maximize Response
A respondent may decline to answer a particular question when answering would entail
excessive burden. Experience has shown that only a small number of respondents decline to
answer any particular question. Response rates overall have been high and resulted in adequate
and informative answers.
Testing of Procedures
There has been no pre-testing of procedures.

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