[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 207 (Monday, October 27, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63945-63946]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-25421]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Comment Request for Information Collection for the Jobs and 
Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC) and Advanced Manufacturing JIAC 
(AM-JIAC) Grants, New Collection

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Labor.

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 preclearance 
consultation program to provide the 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 [44 
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)] (PRA). The PRA helps ensure that respondents can 
provide requested data in the desired format with minimal reporting 
burden (time and financial resources), with collection instruments that 
are clearly understood, and that the impact of collection requirements 
on respondents can be properly assessed.
    Currently, ETA is soliciting comments concerning the collection of 
data for the evaluation of the JIAC and AM-JIAC grants and seeks 
approval for two rounds of in-person visits to a subset of grantee 
clusters and a survey of an estimated 330 respondents across all 30 
grants. The site visits will involve nine purposefully selected 
clusters in round one and a return visit to three of those clusters in 
round two. The visits will consist of semi-structured interviews about 
implementation of the JIAC initiative to be conducted with cluster 
management staff, activity leaders, frontline staff, participants, the 
local workforce investment boards, employer groups, and local economic 
development agencies. The survey will involve at least 11 respondents 
in each of the 30 clusters. Respondents within each cluster will 
include one cluster manager, one ETA funding stream administrator (if 
this person is different from the cluster manager) and either nine or 
10 additional partner organizations. The survey will focus on cluster 
organization, communication, funding sufficiency, the types and 
usefulness of Federal support, and program management and 
sustainability.

DATES: Submit written comments to the office listed in the addresses 
section below on or before December 26, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Gloria Salas-Kos, Office of Policy 
Development and Research, Room N5641, Employment and Training 
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., 
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-693-3596 (this is not a 
toll-free number). Individuals with hearing or speech impairments may 
access the telephone number above via TTY by calling the toll-free 
Federal Information Relay Service at 1-877-889-5627 (TTY/TDD). Fax: 
202-693-2766. Email: [email protected]. To obtain a copy of the 
proposed information collection request, please contact the person 
listed below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gloria Salas-Kos, Office of Policy 
Development and Research, Room N5641, Employment and Training 
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., 
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-693-3596 (this is not a 
toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    As of May 2011, when the first round of JIAC grants was issued, the 
unemployment rate in the United States was nine percent. Almost 14 
million people were looking for jobs. Although the rate of unemployment 
has since fallen by almost two percentage points, it remains higher 
than at any point over the decade leading up to the ``Great Recession'' 
that began in 2007. As the population has continued to grow, job growth 
has surfaced to the top of the nation's economic agenda. The economic 
downturn has led to greater attention to the role of regional 
innovation clusters as drivers for improving the economy, creating jobs 
and employment, and enhancing U.S. competitiveness.
    ETA has been an active Federal partner in the funding and promotion 
of regional innovation clusters for the past decade. Specifically, it 
has sought to address one of the challenges that the clusters face as 
they pursue economic growth: Employers in some high-wage industries 
with the potential for creating jobs report trouble finding American 
workers with the skills to fill the vacancies. Under the authority of 
section 414(c) of the American Competitiveness and Workforce 
Improvement Act of 1998, as amended (29 U.S.C. 2916a), ETA invests 
heavily in grants to build the skills and qualifications of domestic 
unemployed workers so that they can fill these positions and reduce the 
need for foreign workers under the H-1B visa program. In 2011 and 2012, 
ETA partnered with other Federal funding agencies to support the JIAC 
grants competitions; ETA has commissioned this study to evaluate and 
learn from these investments.
    The evaluation will address the following five key research 
questions:
    1. What is the role of multiagency collaboration in the planning 
and implementation of cluster activities?
    2. How and in what ways do regional clusters, programs, and 
partnerships develop under the grant?
    3. What workforce-related outcomes do the clusters report achieving 
through this initiative?

[[Page 63946]]

    4. How is the initiative managed within each cluster? What 
practices are being implemented to promote sustainability of grant 
resources, partnerships, and activities?
    5. What are key lessons learned through implementation? How and 
under what circumstances might these lessons be replicated?

II. Review Focus

    The Department 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 submissions of responses.

III. Current Actions

    Type of Review: New collection.
    Title: Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge grants evaluation.
    OMB Number: 1205--0NEW.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit, and not-for-profit 
institutions.

                                  Burden and Cost Estimates for JIAC Collection
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                                                                                       Total
                                                     Number of      Burden per      respondent     Total  burden
                                                    respondents      response         burden           cost
                                                                     (minutes)        (hours)
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Site Visits Total...............................  ..............  ..............          192.75          $3,867
Round 1 total...................................             165              52          142.50           2,849
    Cluster members.............................             147              55          133.50           2,705
    Program participants........................              18              30            9.00             144
Round 2 total...................................              54              56           50.25            1018
    Cluster members.............................              54              56           50.25            1018
Survey Total....................................  ..............  ..............          141.50           2,867
    Cluster member contact information                        30              30           15.00             304
     submission.................................
Online survey completion........................             330              23          126.50           2,563
        Total for Site Visits and Survey........  ..............  ..............          334.25           6,734
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    Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden: $0.
    We will summarize, and/or include in the request for OMB approval 
of the ICR, the comments received in response to this comment request; 
they will also become a matter of public record.

Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2014-25421 Filed 10-24-14; 8:45 am]
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