[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 67 (Friday, April 5, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15308-15310]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-8487]



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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Proposed Collection; Comment Request

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to 
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance 
consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies 
with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing 
collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA95) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). This program helps to 
ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, 
reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, 
collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of 
collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed. 
Currently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments 
concerning the proposed revision of the ``Hours at Work Survey.''
    A copy of the proposed information collection request (ICR) can be 
obtained by contacting the individual listed below in the addressee 
section of this notice.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the

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addresses section below on or before June 4, 1996. BLS is particularly 
interested in comments which help the agency to:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submissions of responses.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Karin G. Kurz, BLS Clearance Officer, 
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 3255, 
2 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C. 20212. Ms. Kurz can be 
reached on 202-606-7628 (this is not a toll free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    It has been long recognized by experts in the field of productivity 
measurement and analysis that the appropriate measure of labor input 
for productivity statistics is hours worked rather than hours paid. The 
importance of this distinction was further emphasized by 
recommendations of the Panel to Review Productivity Statistics of the 
National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. In the mid-
1970s, BLS established a task force to review existing programs and 
surveys and to determine the most efficient procedure for measuring 
hours worked. Based on the findings and recommendations of that task 
force, BLS developed the Hours at Work Survey data collection program 
that has provided a unique data series for assessing productivity since 
1982.
    The Hours at Work Survey (HWS) collects data for production and 
non-supervisory workers for each of the major industrial sectors of the 
nonagricultural economy (on a quarterly as well as on a yearly basis). 
Data are collected for the number of hours worked and hours paid in 
order to construct ratios of hours worked to hours paid, which are then 
used to convert hours paid data from the Current Employment Statistics 
(CES) program to hours at work in the development of productivity 
statistics. Hours at work exclude paid leave (holidays, vacations, sick 
and personal or administrative leave such as personal business, funeral 
leave, and jury duty) while hours paid do not. Productivity is better 
measured as the ratio of output to hours spent in production. The 
collection of information on hours at work must be done annually 
because of the cyclical sensitivity of productivity measures.

II. Current Actions

    Ratios of hours at work to hours paid are needed to measure labor 
input for productivity statistics. The ratios of hours at work to hours 
paid provided by this survey are used to convert hours paid by 
employees, which are based on data from the CES Program, to hours at 
work. The resulting hours at work measures are then incorporated into 
the BLS labor and multifactor productivity statistics published 
annually and quarterly.
    Based on results of a 1992 response analysis survey (RAS), we have 
identified some areas of concern that have led to changes in wording, 
content or format of instructions, and a new form layout of the HWS 
questionnaire. Preliminary tests and interviews with focus groups 
indicate that the new HWS form is both easier to understand and more 
likely to be correctly completed. However, any such changes should be 
thoroughly tested to ensure that they produce genuine improvements over 
the current situation. Therefore, we will phase in a new HWS 
questionnaire (BLS 2000P1 and BLS 2000N1) in the 1996 data collection 
year (January 1997) together with the old forms (BLS 2000P and BLS 
2000N) as a split-sample test, with complete turnover to the new form 
for the 1997 survey (January 1998). The split will allow us to compare 
response rates with the old and new procedures as well as the content 
of the data. The controlled implementation is needed to ensure that any 
changes in the hours at work to hours paid ratios are real changes 
rather than artifacts of changes to the questionnaire or data 
collection procedures.
    The redesigned HWS has several objectives:
    (1) To improve and ensure the quality of the data in the survey by 
reducing survey errors from questionnaires, respondents, and 
interviewers.
    (2) To increase the proportion of responses obtained by mail.
    (3) To improve the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) 
follow-up data collection so that CATI data are more consistent with 
data obtained by mail.
    Implicit in all of these goals is a further objective of reducing 
the survey's response burden. To that end we have:
    (a) Redesigned the mail questionnaire to make it respondent-
friendly, with instructions close to questions, an uncluttered 
appearance, questions that better fit respondent data sources, and 
questions that result in higher-quality data.
    (b) Revised the CATI questionnaire and procedures to obtain data 
closer to the data we get by mail.
    Moreover, BLS will add a RAS to the HWS as a quality-control 
measure in order to evaluate the quality of the data obtained from the 
survey, including the accuracy of the responses provided and the extent 
which respondents have the requested information readily available.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    Title: Hours at Work Survey.
    OMB Number: 1220-0076.
    Affected Public: Business and other for profit.

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                                                                                                       Estimated
                                          Total                           Total     Average time per     total  
                 Form                  respondents       Frequency      responses       response         burden 
                                                                                                         hours  
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BLS2000P.............................       2,875   Annually..........      2,875  1 hour                  2,875
BLS2000N.............................       2,125   Annually..........      2,125  1 hour                  2,125
BLS2000P1............................       2,875   Annually..........      2,875  1 hour                  2,875
BLS2000N1............................       2,125   Annually..........      2,125  1 hour                  2,125
RAS..................................       1,000   Annually..........      1,000  15 min                    250
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    Totals...........................      11,000   Annually..........     11,000  56 min.                10,250
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    Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): 0.
    Total Burden Cost (operating/maintenance): 0.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget 
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a 
matter of public record.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 2nd day of April, 1996.
Peter T. Spolarich,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 96-8487 Filed 4-4-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-M