[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 44 (Monday, March 7, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12733-12735]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-04712]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics


Request for Comment

AGENCY: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS) is currently soliciting comments concerning the planning, 
development, and implementation of a new National Longitudinal Survey 
of Youth (NLSY) cohort.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted by the methods listed in the 
ADDRESSES section of this notice on or before May 6, 2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by one of the following 
methods:
    On-line: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments.
    Email: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Safia Abdirizak, Economist, Bureau of 
Labor Statistics, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    BLS is currently developing plans for a new NLSY cohort. The BLS 
provided Congress with a 5-year development plan, which would culminate 
in fielding a first round of collection in 2026. This development plan 
is available in section IV below and at https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy26.htm. As part of this process, BLS is committed to engaging with 
new and experienced users of NLSY data to maximize the eventual utility 
of the new NLSY cohort. This request for information is one avenue of 
this engagement plan. The development of a new NLSY cohort will build 
upon BLS experience and analysis of its two ongoing NLSY cohorts.

1. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79)

    The NLSY79 sample is composed of 12,686 young men and women who 
were born in the years 1957 to 1964. Data were first collected in 1979, 
when sample members were ages 14-22. In December 2021, BLS completed 
round 29 of data collection with NLSY79 sample members who were ages 55 
to 63. BLS has followed this cohort of late Baby Boomers for over 40 
years, recording their lives from their teens into their 50s and early 
60s.

2. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)

    The NLSY97 began over 20 years ago with the collection of data from 
a sample of 8,984 youths who were born in the years 1980 to 1984. The 
sample members were ages 12-16 as of December 31, 1996. In Fall 2021, 
BLS began round 20 of data collection for this cohort with sample 
members ages 36 to 41.
    More information about the ongoing NLSY cohorts is available at 
https://www.bls.gov/nls/.
    The longitudinal approach of the NLSY cohorts provides data to 
economists, sociologists, and other researchers in government, 
academia, and private organizations to answer such questions as how 
wages change over time, how schooling and training contribute to the 
development and maintenance of skills to obtain and keep good jobs over 
one's career, how individuals navigate work and family 
responsibilities, and how individuals plan for retirement as their 
careers come to an end. To continue building on these longstanding 
strengths of the NLSY cohorts, BLS envisions that a new youth cohort 
would cover a broad range of topics related to labor market outcomes 
for a new generation entering the labor force.
    Respondents in previous NLSY cohorts have been asked a core set of 
questions that provide extensive information on employment, training, 
education, income, assets, marital status, fertility, health, attitudes 
toward work, experiences with the criminal justice system, household 
composition, and occupational and geographical mobility. In addition, 
the previous cohorts were administered cognitive assessments. BLS 
anticipates that the new youth cohort will cover these same topics and 
include assessments of cognitive and non-cognitive skills, thus 
enabling the study of educational experiences, achievement, cognitive 
and non-cognitive skills, and the transition from school to work; 
training programs and training in the workplace; the value of early-
career job exploration; geographic mobility; relationships between the 
workplace and the well-being of the family and family transitions; drug 
and alcohol use; juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior; fertility 
and childbearing; and employment and earnings of workers.
    As with past NLSY cohorts, a new cohort would collect detailed 
information about each job held, including start and stop dates for 
each job and characteristics of each job such as wages, hours, 
occupation, and industry. Information about periods when no jobs are 
held would also be collected. Detailed information would be collected 
on education and training, and events such as marriage and divorce, as 
well as fertility, all of which affect labor market choices.
    More information about the NLSY26 cohort and current BLS plans is 
available at https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy26.htm.

II. Current and Planned Engagement

    In October 2020, the National Science Foundation funded a ``Shaping 
a New National Longitudinal Survey of Youth''

[[Page 12734]]

conference, which brought together academics from many disciplines, 
leaders from federal agencies, and independent researchers to share 
information about previous achievements of the NLSY cohorts, identify 
emerging and ongoing needs for studying upcoming workforce generations, 
and discuss how a new cohort could meet those needs. The conference 
served as a building block for additional stakeholder and user outreach 
for planning the NLSY26 cohort.
    In addition, BLS has begun extensive consultation with stakeholders 
in government, academia, research and policy organizations, users of 
NLS products, and relevant advisory committees. BLS has consulted with 
members of its NLS Technical Review Committee and conducted outreach 
meetings with several government agencies including the Department of 
Justice, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, 
Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Center for 
Educational Statistics.
    BLS is currently planning for several additional outreach 
activities. First, BLS plans to engage with stakeholder organizations, 
such as the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics 
(COPAFS), the Association of Public Data Users (APDU), the American 
Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the American 
Statistical Association (ASA), the American Economic Association (AEA), 
Population Association of America (PAA), and others, to inform them of 
BLS's current plans. This engagement will also be used to encourage 
their members to submit feedback to this Federal Register Notice and 
other future planned activities. In addition, BLS is planning to issue 
a user survey, host focus groups on various topics, and make available 
informational materials to enable feedback and insight from the 
stakeholder community's broad range of knowledge and interest. Each 
part of the current plan is described further below.
    Informational Materials. NLSY informational materials will contain 
items to support organizations or individuals interested in learning 
more about the current NLSY cohorts and upcoming plans for the NLSY26 
cohort. The materials will include sample email templates that entities 
can use to encourage their constituents to submit input, as well as 
presentations and fact sheets on a variety of content areas to support 
a discussion that would yield feedback. Users can submit feedback 
through the user survey and/or this Federal Register Notice.
    User Survey. This survey will be designed to gain information from 
a wide range of stakeholders and data users while imposing a low burden 
on respondents. The proposed survey will ask about users' satisfaction 
with past questionnaire content and data access, as well as their 
priorities for a new youth cohort to inform BLS of anticipated research 
needs in the future. The user survey is available at the link below: 
https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy26.htm.
    Focus Groups. A series of focus groups will be conducted to gather 
more detailed input and provide greater community engagement. These 
focus groups will include introductory information about NLSY cohorts 
to be accessible to a wide audience. The BLS will tailor the 
discussions towards survey features that are relevant to the associated 
user communities. These focus groups will seek feedback from both 
targeted stakeholders and user groups. BLS will conduct a series of six 
virtual sessions regarding: (1) Childhood and Family Retrospective; (2) 
Physical Health, Environment, and Climate; (3) Mental Health; (4) 
Employment, Jobs, and the Future of Work; (5) Innovations in 
International Surveys; and (6) Think tanks/Research organizations/Non-
profits. Each session will involve 7 to 9 participants, representing a 
range of stakeholders and users with expertise in the session topic 
areas. These sessions may cover survey content and survey objectives, 
as well as usability and accessibility of data files for a new youth 
cohort.

III. Additional Information-Gathering Activities

    In tandem with the user engagement activities described above, the 
BLS is conducting several activities to gather information that is 
relevant to its development of a new NLSY cohort. BLS has funded four 
content panels to provide opportunities for experts in different 
subject areas to make sure that emerging ideas, best practices, and 
relevant examples are brought forward for consideration for an NLSY26. 
Four panels are scheduled in FY2022 regarding: (1) Family and Early 
Childhood Retrospectives; (2) K-12 Education and Cognition; (3) Health 
and Environment; and (4) Department of Defense Initiatives and 
Assessments. Each panel is expected to have 4-7 members who will meet 
several times over the course of 3-5 months before determining their 
recommendations.
    BLS has also funded a retrospective analysis of data from the 
NLSY79 and NLSY97 cohorts. This analysis will document past usage of 
different topics and variables, examine the publications that resulted 
from this usage, and compare the NLSY cohorts to other major 
longitudinal surveys and other BLS household surveys to identify areas 
of overlap.
    Finally, BLS has funded a study to evaluate alternative (non-
survey) data sources that may potentially be incorporated in the new 
NLSY cohort to improve accuracy, increase granularity, provide 
information on new topics, and/or reduce respondent burden. This study 
will include a broad scan to identify potentially useful sources, 
analyses to develop potential use cases, and information-gathering to 
allow assessment of the feasibility and value of each use case.

IV. NLSY26 Development Plan

    As submitted to Congress, the following 5-year development plan 
would yield implementation of a new NLSY cohort in Fiscal Year 2026.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
          FY                              Major tasks
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2020.................  Planning.
2021.................  Stakeholder outreach, including conferences and
                        web seminars; and continue planning, including
                        content panels, assessments of sample frames,
                        dissemination needs, and vendor capabilities.
2022.................  Continue content panels and other design
                        activities (including sampling, survey,
                        materials, dissemination).
2023.................  Complete content panels, continue design, and
                        begin survey development (sampling, survey,
                        questionnaire, materials, dissemination, and
                        systems work).
2024.................  Continue survey and systems development and begin
                        pretesting preparations.
2025.................  Pretest fielding, revisions to systems and the
                        survey resulting from the pretest, and
                        preparation for round 1 screening and data
                        collection to occur in 2026.
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V. Desired Focus of Comments

    As BLS pursues the current and planned engagement and information-
gathering activities described above to support development of a new 
NLSY cohort, BLS is also interested in hearing directly from the public 
in response to this FRN. BLS is particularly interested in comments and 
recommendations on the following aspects of the new NLSY cohort:

 Questionnaire content
 Survey methodology
 Sampling
 Data dissemination

    The BLS welcomes comments on any aspect of the above areas and is 
especially interested in comments on:
     Research questions that a new cohort of the National 
Longitudinal Surveys program would address at different points in the 
life course.
     The distinctive role of NLSY cohorts among the range of 
survey and non-survey data sources.
     Factors that inform researchers' choice of data sources.
     Modifications in the coverage of specific topics compared 
to previous NLSY cohorts. This could include any gaps in the current 
data, `must keep' elements in the current data, or elements that are 
less valuable.
     Uses of data from a new NLSY cohort that BLS should 
anticipate and prioritize (e.g., training of young researchers, 
benchmarking specialized samples, policy analysis, cross-cohort 
comparisons, basic research on human behavior, etc.).
     Design and implementation features of a new NLSY cohort 
that users will find most valuable (e.g., accessible public use files, 
frequency of data collection, availability of biometric measures, 
oversamples of specific populations, linkage possibilities to selected 
administrative data, ease of use of data, alignment with other surveys, 
etc.).
     New social and economic trends that are important to 
consider in designing a new NLSY cohort.
     Any other issues BLS should consider in developing a new 
NLSY cohort.
    In addition, BLS is open to hearing from the public about how to 
improve its current stakeholder engagement plans to promote equitable 
and diversified feedback as a new NLSY cohort is developed.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and made available at https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy26.htm.

    Signed at Washington, DC, on March 1, 2022.
Eric Molina,
Acting Chief, Division of Management Systems.
[FR Doc. 2022-04712 Filed 3-4-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P