81 FR 88662 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD)

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 236 (December 8, 2016)

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 236 (Thursday, December 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 88662-88663]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29395]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

 Census Bureau


Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Longitudinal 
Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD)

AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort 
to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public 
and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on 
proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be submitted on 
or before February 6, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments to Jennifer Jessup, Departmental 
Paperwork Clearance Officer, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th 
and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet 
at [email protected]).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument(s) and instructions 
should be directed to Robert Sienkiewicz; 
[email protected]; phone: 301-763-1234.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract

    A 21st century statistical system must provide information about 
the dynamic economy quickly, using data assets efficiently while 
minimizing the burden of collecting and providing data and fully 
preserving confidentiality. The Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-
Household Dynamics (LEHD) program has demonstrated the power and 
usefulness of linking multiple business and employee data sets with 
state-of-the-art confidentiality protections to build a longitudinal 
national frame of jobs.
    This program supports the Department of Commerce plan to improve 
American competitiveness and measures of innovation. It provides 
federal, state, and local policymakers and planners, businesses, 
private sector decision makers, and Congress with comprehensive and 
timely national, state, and local information on the dynamic nature of 
employers and employees.
    The LEHD program significantly reduces the overall effort for the 
generation of its quarterly data product by:

 Leveraging exiting federal administrative and state data
 Avoiding costs required to expand existing surveys to collect 
the information directly
 Reducing respondent burden by limiting the number of required 
resources to just the owners of the required data

    The LEHD program is a member of a partnership between the US Census 
Bureau and the Labor Market Information (LMI) agencies from 49 states, 
the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico and the 
Virgin Islands. This partnership supports the development, promotion, 
and distribution of the following data products:
     QWI Public Use--The flagship data product of the LEHD 
program is the QWI Public Use which provides 32 statistical indicators 
on employment, job creation and destruction, accessions (hires and 
recalls), and separations (e.g. exits and layoffs). These statistics 
are released for the following by-groups for all quarters for which 
data are available for each partner state:

    [cir] County, metropolitan, and workforce investment area
    [cir] Age, sex, race, and ethnicity categories
    [cir] Detailed industry (i.e., type, firm age, firm size)

     LEHD Origin Destination Employment Statistics (LODES)--
LODES data provide detailed spatial distributions of workers' 
employment and residential locations and the relation between the two 
at the Census Block level. LODES also provides characteristic detail on 
age, earnings, industry distributions, and local workforce indicators.
     Job-to-Job Flows (J2J)--Job-to-Job Flows (J2J) is a new 
set of statistics on worker reallocation in the United States 
constructed from the LEHD data. The initial release of national data 
distinguishes hires and separations associated with job change from 
hires and separations to non-employment. Future releases will be 
published at more detailed levels of aggregations, and will tabulate 
the origin and destination job characteristics of workers changing 
jobs.
    These data products highlight state and local labor market dynamics 
that cannot be learned from other statistical sources and are therefore 
used in many different arenas. For example, the QWI can be used as 
local-labor-market controls in regression analysis; to identify long-
term trends; to provide local context in performance evaluations, and a 
host of other applications.

II. Method of Collection

    The collection of data occurs in accordance with the rules 
established by interagency agreements with the participating state 
partners or data sharing agreements that have been established within 
the Census Bureau. For state partners, their data is submitted directly 
to the Census secure servers where Personally Identifiable Information 
(PII) goes through a process to replace it with Protected 
Identification Keys (PIK). This ``PIKing'' process also applies to all 
other administrative data that are used by the LEHD program. For all 
other required administration data, they are transferred or referenced 
by the QWI production system. Data collection and processing also 
includes activities such as validation of data quality.
    The data products created by the LEHD program are not generated by 
a traditional survey. Rather, all input data required is collected 
electronically as follows:
     State Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Quarterly Census of 
Employment and Wages (QCEW) are provided via secure File Transfer 
Protocol (FTP)

[[Page 88663]]

where each state LMI agency sends these data directly to the Census 
Bureau. This transfer of data is governed by a Memorandum of 
Understandings (MOUs) with each state partner.
     Federal and Census Administrative data are acquired from 
other directorates or divisions within the Census Bureau where an 
internal agreement has been established for the use of the data.
     Public Use data sets are acquired from public source Web 
sites or public File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers.

III. Data

    Data that is used by the LEHD program is defined in the following 
table.

                                Table III-1--Input Data Sets for the LEHD Program
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                                                                                                     Number of
                  File                              Source                 Delivery schedule        respondents
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Housing Survey (AHS)...........  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS)......  Census Bureau.............  Quarterly.................               1
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages  Bureau of Labor Statistics  Quarterly.................               1
 (QCEW).
Current Population Survey (CPS).........  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Federal Workers.........................  Office of Personnel         Quarterly.................               1
                                           Management.
Geographic Reference File...............  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Master Address File Extract.............  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
New Business Register...................  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Geographic Database.....................  Pitney Bowes Corporation..  Quarterly.................               1
Composite Person Record.................  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Master Address File Auxiliary Reference   Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
 File.
Residence Candidate File................  Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
Survey of Income and Program              Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
 Participation.
Topologically Integrated Geographic       Census Bureau.............  Yearly....................               1
 Encoding and Referencing.
Unemployment Insurance Wage File........  State Partners............  Quarterly.................              52
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages  State Partners............  Quarterly.................              52
 (ES-202).
WIB Definitions files...................  State Partners............  Acquired as needed........              52
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    OMB Control Number: 0607-XXXX.
    Form Number(s): Not applicable as survey forms are not required to 
collect this data.
    Type of Review: Regular submission as defined in Table III-1.
    Affected Public: 0.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: As defined in Table III-1.
    Estimated Time per Response: No more than 4 hours required to 
identify and send/post required data sets.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: Approximately 1964 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: Census Bureau collection of 
this data imposes no such costs to the respondents.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: The authority to conduct the LEHD program is 13 
U.S.C. Section 6. Of course, confidentiality is assured by 13 U.S.C. 
Section 9.

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-29395 Filed 12-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P