[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.
                             ----------------                    -----------------------------------------------
    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]
 BILLING CODE 4510-24-P