[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 227 (Tuesday, November 30, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Page 67974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-26055]



[[Page 67974]]

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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Labor Surplus Area Classification Correction

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to alert the public to an error 
in the previously published annual Labor Surplus Area (LSA) list for 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, and to announce the corrected LSA list for FY 
2022.

DATES: The corrected annual LSA list is effective October 1, 2021, for 
all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Samuel Wright, Office of Workforce 
Investment, Employment and Training Administration, 200 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Room C-4514, Washington, DC 20210. Telephone: (202) 693-2870 
(This is not a toll-free number) or email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The previously published FY 2022 LSA list 
contained more areas than it should have, due to an error caused by a 
miscalculation of the two-year unemployment rate average. The correct 
two-year unemployment rate average is rounded to 5.86 percent and the 
correct LSA unemployment rate is rounded to 7.03 percent.
    The Department of Labor's (DOL's) regulations implementing 
Executive Orders 12073 and 10582 are set forth at 20 CFR part 654, 
subpart A. These regulations require the Employment and Training 
Administration (ETA) to classify jurisdictions as LSAs pursuant to the 
criteria specified in the regulations, and to publish annually a list 
of LSAs. Pursuant to those regulations, ETA is hereby publishing the 
annual LSA list.
    In addition, the regulations provide exceptional circumstance 
criteria for classifying LSAs when catastrophic events, such as natural 
disasters, plant closings, and contract cancellations are expected to 
have a long-term impact on labor market area conditions, discounting 
temporary or seasonal factors.

Eligible Labor Surplus Areas

    An LSA is a civil jurisdiction that has a civilian average annual 
unemployment rate during the previous two calendar years of 20 percent 
or more above the average annual civilian unemployment rate for all 
states during the same 24-month reference period. ETA uses only 
official unemployment estimates provided by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics in making these classifications. The average unemployment 
rate for all states includes data for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 
The LSA classification criteria stipulate a civil jurisdiction must 
have a ``floor unemployment rate'' of 6 percent or higher to be 
classified as an LSA. Any civil jurisdiction that has a ``ceiling 
unemployment rate'' of 10 percent or higher is classified as an LSA.
    Civil jurisdictions are defined as follows:
    1. A city of at least 25,000 population on the basis of the most 
recently available estimates from the Bureau of the Census; or
    2. A town or township in the States of Michigan, New Jersey, New 
York, or Pennsylvania of 25,000 or more population and which possess 
powers and functions similar to those of cities; or
    3. All counties, except for those counties which contain any type 
of civil jurisdictions defined in ``1'' or ``2'' above; or
    4. A ``balance of county'' consisting of a county less any 
component cities and townships identified in ``1'' or ``2'' above; or
    5. A county equivalent which is a town in the States of 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, or a municipio in the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Procedures for Classifying Labor Surplus Areas

    The DOL issues the LSA list on a fiscal year basis. The list 
becomes effective each October 1, and remains in effect through the 
following September 30. The reference period used in preparing the 
current list was January 2019 through December 2020. The national 
average unemployment rate (including Puerto Rico) during this period is 
rounded to 5.86 percent. Twenty percent higher than the national 
unemployment rate during this period is rounded to 7.03 percent. 
Therefore, a civil jurisdiction must have a two-year unemployment rate 
of 7.03 percent or higher in order to be classified an LSA. To ensure 
that all areas classified as labor surplus meet the requirements, when 
a city is part of a county and meets the unemployment qualifier as an 
LSA, that city is identified in the LSA list, the balance of county, 
not the entire county, will be identified as an LSA if the balance of 
county also meets the LSA unemployment criteria. The data on the 
current and previous years' LSAs are available at www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/lsa.

Petition for Exceptional Circumstance Consideration

    The classification procedures also provide criteria for the 
designation of LSAs under exceptional circumstances criteria. These 
procedures permit the regular classification criteria to be waived when 
an area experiences a significant increase in unemployment which is not 
temporary or seasonal and which was not reflected in the data for the 
two-year reference period. Under the program's exceptional circumstance 
procedures, LSA classifications can be made for civil jurisdictions, 
Metropolitan Statistical Areas or Combined Statistical Areas, as 
defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In order for an 
area to be classified as an LSA under the exceptional circumstance 
criteria, the state workforce agency must submit a petition requesting 
such classification to DOL's ETA. The current criteria for an 
exceptional circumstance classification are:
    1. An area's unemployment rate is at least 7.03 percent for each of 
the three most recent months; and
    2. A projected unemployment rate of at least 7.03 percent for each 
of the next 12 months because of an event.
    When submitting such a petition, the state workforce agency must 
provide documentation that the exceptional circumstance event has 
occurred. The state workforce agency may file petitions on behalf of 
civil jurisdictions, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or Micropolitan 
Statistical Areas.
    State Workforce Agencies may submit petitions in electronic format 
to [email protected], or in hard copy to the U.S. Department of 
Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce 
Investment, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room C-4514, Washington, DC 
20210, Attention Samuel Wright. Data collection for the petition is 
approved under OMB 1205-0207, expiration date May 31, 2023.

    Signed at Washington, DC.
Angela Hanks,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-26055 Filed 11-29-21; 8:45 am]
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