[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 6, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40661-40664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-15174]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Proposed Information Collection Request Submitted for Public 
Comment and Recommendations; Unemployment Insurance (UI) Facilitation 
of Claimant Reemployment

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, the Department of Labor (DOL) conducts a 
preclearance 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 the 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.
    The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting 
comments concerning the proposed new collection of information on the 
reemployment of UI benefit recipients. ETA is seeking Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval under the PRA95 to establish a 
system to collect data at the state level on the percentage of 
individuals who become reemployed in the calendar quarter subsequent to 
the quarter in which they received their first UI payment.

DATES: Submit comments on or before September 7, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to Andrew W. Spisak, Office of Workforce 
Security, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of 
Labor, Room S-4522, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; 
fax: 202-693-3975; e-mail: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew W. Spisak, telephone: 202-693-
3196 (this is not a toll-free number); fax: 202-693-3975; e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    Required by Congress under the Government Performance and Results 
Act of 1993 (GPRA), the DOL Strategic Plan is an integral part of the 
budget process. Among the purposes of the

[[Page 40662]]

GPRA are to improve Federal program effectiveness and public 
accountability by focusing on program results, service quality, and 
customer satisfaction.
    One of the goals in the fiscal year (FY) 2003--2008 DOL strategic 
plan--A Secure Workforce--focuses on improving the operational 
performance and effectiveness of the federal/state UI program. Four 
performance measures support this strategic goal:
     Make Timely Benefit Payments to UI Claimants
     Detect Overpayments
     Establish Tax Accounts Promptly
     Facilitate the Reemployment of UI Claimants
    Data are currently available for measuring performance for three of 
the indicators; however, data are not available to adequately reflect 
the degree to which the UI system facilitates the reemployment of UI 
benefit recipients. For this indicator, ETA proposes to collect data on 
the rate at which UI beneficiaries become reemployed within the 
calendar quarter subsequent to the quarter in which they received their 
first UI payment. This measurement will encourage UI agencies--which 
share responsibility with all Workforce Investment partners in 
facilitating the reemployment of UI beneficiaries--to be innovative in 
the steps they take to facilitate these individuals' reemployment. 
Insights gained about the combinations of reemployment efforts and UI 
eligibility conditions that promote the quick return of UI 
beneficiaries to suitable work will be shared with state UI agencies.
    States currently measure the entered employment rates of certain 
limited categories of job seekers (for example, veterans and UI 
claimants whose profiles indicate they are in the greatest need of 
reemployment services) and convey this information through the ETA 
reporting system. However, no reemployment data are currently collected 
of the general population of UI beneficiaries. Therefore, during FY 
2003, DOL developed and pilot-tested a reemployment rate measure for UI 
beneficiaries in six states. The results of the pilot are discussed 
below.

The Measure

    ETA carefully considered several options for measuring the 
reemployment of UI claimants:
     Use currently reported Employment Service data to obtain 
entered employment data for workforce investment system registrants who 
were monetarily eligible for UI;
     Crossmatch samples of UI recipients in the Benefit 
Accuracy Measurement (BAM) (OMB Approval No. 1205-0245, expiring 6/07) 
survey with state wage record files;
     Crossmatch samples of UI claimants receiving first 
payments with state wage record files; and
     Crossmatch all UI claimants receiving first payments with 
state wage record files.
    ETA concluded that the most appropriate measure of claimant 
reemployment is obtained by crossmatching all UI claimants who received 
a first UI payment during a calendar quarter against state wage record 
files in the subsequent quarter. This method for measuring the 
reemployment of UI claimants:
     Is comprehensive;
     Yields reemployment rates that have no sampling 
variability;
     Should be reasonably easy to obtain because it so closely 
resembles the wage record crossmatch states currently use for 
overpayment detection;
     Is similar in concept to Workforce Investment Act outcome 
measures that use wage record data; and
     Will not require extensive state staff time.

Pilot Description

    States participating in the pilot identified UI claimants who 
received first payments in each quarter of calendar year (CY) 2002 for 
intrastate state UI claims--including combined wage claims (CWC) and 
joint State UI/Federal claims (Unemployment Compensation for Federal 
Employees and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (OMB 
Approval No. 1205-0176, expiring 6/06)).
    The states then ran computer crossmatches of the Social Security 
Numbers (SSNs) of the claimants with the UI wage records for each of 
the two quarters following the quarter of first payment and counted the 
number of UI benefit recipients who had wages in the subsequent 
quarters. The one-quarter and two-quarter reemployment rates equal the 
ratios of total wage record matches in each of the quarters to the 
number of claimants who receive a first payment.
    In order to expedite data collection, only first payments for 
intrastate claims and crossmatches of intrastate wage records were 
included in the pilot. For national implementation of this measure, ETA 
will pursue the technical changes required to include first payments 
for interstate claims and wage records reported by out-of-state 
employers in the crossmatch.

Pilot Results

    The unadjusted reemployment rates for the six pilot states averaged 
55.4 percent for the first quarter after receiving a first payment and 
60.8 percent for the second quarter. Reemployment rates ranged from 
52.9 percent to 71.9 percent for reemployment in the first subsequent 
quarter, and from 55.4 percent to 75.1 percent for reemployment in the 
second subsequent quarter.
    These rates were adjusted to take into account those UI benefit 
recipients who had earnings from temporary or part-time employment 
during their period of eligibility for UI benefits, referred to as the 
benefit year. These earnings generally reduce the amount of the 
claimant's weekly benefit but do not eliminate it. Therefore, these 
individuals are considered partially unemployed, not reemployed.
    Benefit year earnings data are available from the BAM program, a 
statistical survey designed to estimate the accuracy of paid and denied 
UI claims. (BAM data are collected from random audits of UI claims 
conducted by state BAM auditors.) For the six pilot states combined, an 
estimated 7.1 percent of the claimants had earnings during the quarter 
after their first payment and 7.9 percent had earnings two quarters 
after their first payment but were not reemployed.
    Applying the adjustment for claimant benefit year earnings, the 
reemployment rates for the six states combined averaged 51.5 percent 
for the first quarter after receiving a first payment and 56 percent 
for the second quarter. Pilot results are summarized in the following 
table.

[[Page 40663]]



                                Summary of UI Reemployment Measure Pilot Results
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           State: ALL                                                                Run date        12/4/2003
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                                                                     Number of      Percent of      Percent of
      First payment cohort           Number of     Number Xmatch      Xmatch        Xmatch hits     Xmatch hits
                                  first payments   hits YYYY.Q+1     YYYY.Q+2        YYYY.Q+1        YYYY.Q+2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002.Q1.........................         666,817         394,346         426,407           59.14           63.95
2002.Q2.........................         489.168         272.458         290.960           55.70           59.48
2002.Q3.........................         470.749         264.349         271.922           56.15           57.76
2002.Q4.........................         531,718         264,576         323.017           49.76           60.75
2002............................       2,158,452       1,195,729       1,312,306           55.40           60.80
2002 Adjusted...................  ..............  ..............  ..............           51.48          55.97
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Notes to the table:
(1) One state also provided rates based on the number of individuals receiving first payments (unique SSNs in
  the file of first payments) in addition to the number of first payments. Reemployment rates averaged about 0.2
  percentage points higher using this count.
(2) The number of first payments reported by one state includes some interstate claims. This state's interstate
  population is relatively small compared to its intrastate population, and the state estimates that the effect
  on the reemployment percentages is less than 1.5 percentage points.

    Many factors affect the rate at which UI claimants become 
reemployed. For example, the average unemployment rates in the six 
pilot states for the period that the crossmatches were run (CY 2002, 
2nd quarter, through CY 2003, 2nd quarter) ranged from 3.7 percent to 
7.2 percent. The state with the lowest unemployment rate also had the 
highest adjusted reemployment rates for both quarters. An initial 
analysis of the pilot data indicates a close relationship between the 
reemployment rate in a state and the state's total unemployment rate 
and exhaustion rate. However, a larger evaluation would need to be 
conducted to statistically substantiate this relationship. The analysis 
of the pilot data is available on the ETA Web site at: http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/reemploypilot.asp.
    Although the pilot study collected data for two quarters subsequent 
to the first payment quarter, ETA proposes to collect this information 
for only the first subsequent quarter. Pilot results show differences 
between the reemployment percentages for the first and second quarters 
of only 5.4 percentage points (unadjusted) and 4.5 percentage points 
(adjusted). This may indicate that the UI system is most likely to 
facilitate reemployment of job-ready claimants relatively early in 
their benefit years. Limiting data collection to a single quarter will 
also reduce the cost.

II. Desired Focus of Comments

    DOL is particularly interested in comments which:
     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 submission of responses.
    A copy of the proposed information collection request can be 
obtained by contacting the office listed above in the addressee section 
of this notice.

III. Current Actions

    ETA proposes to: (1) Require State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) to 
report quarterly data on the number of UI claimants receiving first 
payments for UI benefits during a calendar quarter and the number of 
those claimants who have earnings in the next calendar quarter; (2) use 
these data to construct a reemployment rate to measure the UI program 
goal of facilitating the reemployment of UI claimants; (3) adjust the 
reemployment rate for the proportion of claimants who receive earnings 
for partial employment but are not considered reemployed; and (4) 
identify and separate the effects of labor market and UI program 
characteristics on the state's reemployment rate from the efforts and 
actions of states to facilitate the reemployment of UI claimants.
    At least six months prior to implementation, ETA will disseminate 
to the SWAs the technical specifications needed to implement this data 
collection system. States will electronically transmit the reports to 
ETA according to the following schedule.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Quarter in which first payment is issued       Report due to ETA by
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st quarter (January to March)............  November 30.
2nd quarter (April to June)...............  February 28.
3rd quarter (July to September)...........  May 31.
4th quarter (October to December).........  August 31.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ETA will provide states with the resources for startup costs and 
operation costs for the first year of data collection, as described in 
the burden cost sections below.
    Type of Review: New.
    Agency: Employment and Training Administration.
    Title: Unemployment Insurance Facilitation of Claimant 
Reemployment.
    Recordkeeping: States are required to follow their state laws 
regarding public record retention in retaining records for this 
proposed data collection system.
    Affected Public: State Workforce Agencies (SWAs).
    Frequency: Quarterly.
    Total Respondents: 53 SWAs.
    Total Responses: 212 per year (53 SWAs x 4 quarterly reports per 
year).
    Estimated Time Per Response: SWA staff--10 hours.
    Total Burden Hours: 2,120 hours.
    Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $53,000 (53 SWAs at $1,000 per 
SWA).
    Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): $79,500 (annual) (53 
SWAs at $1,500 per SWA).
    Comments submitted in response to this request will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the information 
collection request; they will also become a matter of public record.


[[Page 40664]]


    Signed in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2004.
Emily Stover DeRocco,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training.
[FR Doc. 04-15174 Filed 7-2-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-P