[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 246 (Tuesday, December 26, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61030-61032]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27662]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Information Collection Activities; Comment Request
AGENCY: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.
ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.
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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. 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. The Bureau of Labor
[[Page 61031]]
Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed
revision of a currently approved collection ``National Longitudinal
Survey of Youth 1979.'' A copy of the proposed information collection
request can be obtained by contacting the individual listed in the
Addresses section of this notice.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
Addresses section below on or before February 26, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080,
2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20212. Written comments also
may be transmitted by fax to 202-691-5111 (this is not a toll free
number).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer,
202-691-7628 (this is not a toll free number). (See ADDRESSES section.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) is a
representative national sample of persons who were born in the years
1957 to 1964 and lived in the U.S. in 1978. These respondents were ages
14 to 22 when the first round of interviews began in 1979; they will be
ages 53 to 60 as of December 31, 2017. The NLSY79 was conducted
annually from 1979 to 1994 and has been conducted biennially since
1994. The longitudinal focus of this survey requires information to be
collected from the same individuals over many years in order to trace
their education, training, work experience, fertility, income, and
program participation.
In addition to the main NLSY79, the biological children of female
NLSY79 respondents have been surveyed since 1986. A battery of child
cognitive, socio-emotional, and physiological assessments has been
administered biennially since 1986 to NLSY79 mothers and their
children. Starting in 1994, children who had reached age 15 by December
31 of the survey year (the Young Adults) were interviewed about their
work experiences, training, schooling, health, fertility, self-esteem,
and other topics. Funding for the NLSY79 Child and Young Adult surveys
is provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development through an interagency agreement with the
BLS and through a grant awarded to researchers at the Ohio State
University Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR). The interagency
agreement funds data collection for children and young adults up to age
24. The grant funds data collection for young adults age 25 and older.
One of the goals of the Department of Labor (DOL) is to produce and
disseminate timely, accurate, and relevant information about the U.S.
labor force. The BLS contributes to this goal by gathering information
about the labor force and labor market and disseminating it to
policymakers and the public so that participants in those markets can
make more informed, and thus more efficient, choices. Research based on
the NLSY79 contributes to the formation of national policy in the areas
of education, training, employment programs, and school-to-work
transitions. In addition to the reports that the BLS produces based on
data from the NLSY79, members of the academic community publish
articles and reports based on NLSY79 data for the DOL and other funding
agencies. To date, more than 2,793 articles examining NLSY79 data have
been published in scholarly journals. The survey design provides data
gathered from the same respondents over time to form the only data set
that contains this type of information for this important population
group. Without the collection of these data, an accurate longitudinal
data set could not be provided to researchers and policymakers, thus
adversely affecting the DOL's ability to perform its policy- and
report-making activities.
II. Current Action
The BLS seeks approval to conduct round 28 of the NLSY79 and the
associated surveys of biological children of female NLSY79 respondents.
The Young Adult Survey will be administered to young adults age 12
and older who are the biological children of female NLSY79 respondents.
These young adults will be contacted regardless of whether they reside
with their mothers.
Members of the Young Adult grant sample are contacted for
interviews every other round once they reach age 31. The NLSY79 Young
Adult Survey involves interviews with approximately 6,326 young adults
ages 12 and older.
During the field period, about 10 main NLSY79 interviews will be
validated to ascertain whether the interview took place as the
interviewer reported and whether the interview was done in a polite and
professional manner.
BLS has undertaken a continuing redesign effort to examine the
current content of the NLSY79 and provide direction for changes that
may be appropriate as the respondents age. The 2018 instrument reflects
a number of changes recommended by experts in various fields of social
science and by our own internal review of the survey's content.
Additions to the questionnaire are accompanied by deletions of previous
questions so that the overall time required to complete the survey
should remain about the same as compared to 2016.
The round 28 questionnaire includes new questions on job
characteristics, spouse's health, cognition, pain and use of pain
killers, and retirement financing. In addition, a new module that
assesses the respondents' health as they turn age 60 will be included
for the first time.
Questions on job characteristics will be added to the employment
section for Round 28. All respondents (male and female) who have held a
job since their last interview will be asked these questions about each
job held since the date of their last interview. The questions ask
about job stress, job flexibility, and workplace accommodations. Two
new questions that ask about spouse's health will be added to the
section on spouse labor supply. They ask the respondent to rank
spouse's physical health and emotional health as excellent, very good,
good, fair, or poor.
In the health section, two types of questions that assess cognition
will be added to Round 28. All respondents will be asked questions that
assess cognition. The first type ask the respondent to self-rate memory
and change in memory. Respondents have been asked these questions
previously. The second type is the ``Animal Naming Test.'' The
respondent is asked to name as many animals as s/he can in one minute.
In addition, in the health section round 28, two questions on pain and
three questions on use of painkillers will be asked of all respondents.
The reference period for both pain and use of pain medication is the
last 30 days. The questions ask whether the respondents suffer from
chronic pain and how frequently, whether they have taken pain
medication, whether the medicine taken can be purchased over-the-
counter, and whether the medicine was taken in a way not directed by a
doctor.
Round 28 introduces a module of health questions asked of
respondents who have reached age 60. Most of the questions that make up
the Age-60 Health module have been asked in previous rounds at ages 40
and 50; topics include depression, health of the respondent's
biological parents, physical functioning, pain, health limits on daily
activities, chronic conditions,
[[Page 61032]]
functional limitations, sleep, and an open-ended question asking
whether the respondent wants to report anything additional about his or
her health.
Round 28 bolsters the retirement expectations section to collect
new information on how the respondents plan to fund their retirement
and on their knowledge about Social Security. We will add questions on
whether, at what age, and how much per month the respondent expects to
collect Social Security retirement benefits. We will ask similar
questions for employer-based pensions and Individual Retirement
Accounts. In all three instances, parallel questions will be asked
about the spouse/partner's expected sources of income. We will also ask
the estimated value of other assets the respondent might live off of
during retirement and whether she expects support from family members.
The questions on knowledge of Social Security benefits will ask about
the timing of starting retirement benefits and several true/false
questions that ask about what entitles one to Social Security
retirement benefits and how the timing of claiming affects the
benefits.
Most of the changes made to the Young Adult questionnaire for 2018
have been made to streamline questions and sections in order to cut
down on the amount of time it takes for a respondent to complete an
interview. The Young Adult sample will includes 663 respondents ages
12-22 and 5,663 respondents age 23 and older in Round 28.
The questions added to the Young Adult questionnaire expand our
understanding of both physical and mental/emotional health and well-
being such as gender identity and sexual orientation, resiliency,
loneliness and social isolation, self-worth, and social cognition.
III. Desired Focus of Comments
The BLS is particularly interested in comments that:
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.
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.
Title of Collection: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.
OMB Number: 1220-0109.
Type of Review: Revision, with change, of a previously approved
collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Estimated Total Burden Hours
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Average time Estimated
Form Total Frequency Total per response total burden
respondents responses (minutes) (hours)
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NLSY79 Round 27 Main Survey. 6,900 Biennially........ 6,900 75 8,625
Round 27 Validation 10 Biennially........ 10 6 1
Interviews.
Young Adult Survey (Ages 12 20 Biennially........ 20 50 17
to 13).
Young Adult Survey (Ages 14 294 Biennially........ 294 66 323
to 18).
Young Adult Survey (Ages 19 962 Biennially........ 962 63 1,010
to 24).
Young Adult Survey, Grant 1,210 Biennially........ 1,210 60 1,210
component (Age 25 to 28),
interview.
Young Adult Survey, Grant 2,574 Biennially........ 2,574 70 3,003
component (Age 29 and
older), interview.
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Totals \1\.............. 11,960 .................. 11,970 .............. 14,189
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\1\ The total number of 11,960 respondents across all the survey instruments is a mutually exclusive count that
does not include the 10 reinterview respondents, who were previously counted among the main and young adult
survey respondents.
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 19th day of December 2017.
Kimberley D. Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems.
[FR Doc. 2017-27662 Filed 12-22-17; 8:45 am]
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