[Federal Register: July 6, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 128)]
[Notices]
[Page 40661-40664]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06jy04-75]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Proposed Information Collection Request Submitted for Public
Comment and Recommendations; Unemployment Insurance (UI) Facilitation
of Claimant Reemployment
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and
respondent burden, the Department of Labor (DOL) conducts a
preclearance 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 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program
helps to ensure that the 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 Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting
comments concerning the proposed new collection of information on the
reemployment of UI benefit recipients. ETA is seeking Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) approval under the PRA95 to establish a
system to collect data at the state level on the percentage of
individuals who become reemployed in the calendar quarter subsequent to
the quarter in which they received their first UI payment.
DATES: Submit comments on or before September 7, 2004.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to Andrew W. Spisak, Office of Workforce
Security, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor, Room S-4522, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210;
fax: 202-693-3975; e-mail: spisak.andrew@dol.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew W. Spisak, telephone: 202-693-
3196 (this is not a toll-free number); fax: 202-693-3975; e-mail:
spisak.andrew@dol.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Required by Congress under the Government Performance and Results
Act of 1993 (GPRA), the DOL Strategic Plan is an integral part of the
budget process. Among the purposes of the
[[Page 40662]]
GPRA are to improve Federal program effectiveness and public
accountability by focusing on program results, service quality, and
customer satisfaction.
One of the goals in the fiscal year (FY) 2003--2008 DOL strategic
plan--A Secure Workforce--focuses on improving the operational
performance and effectiveness of the federal/state UI program. Four
performance measures support this strategic goal:
Make Timely Benefit Payments to UI Claimants
Detect Overpayments
Establish Tax Accounts Promptly
Facilitate the Reemployment of UI Claimants
Data are currently available for measuring performance for three of
the indicators; however, data are not available to adequately reflect
the degree to which the UI system facilitates the reemployment of UI
benefit recipients. For this indicator, ETA proposes to collect data on
the rate at which UI beneficiaries become reemployed within the
calendar quarter subsequent to the quarter in which they received their
first UI payment. This measurement will encourage UI agencies--which
share responsibility with all Workforce Investment partners in
facilitating the reemployment of UI beneficiaries--to be innovative in
the steps they take to facilitate these individuals' reemployment.
Insights gained about the combinations of reemployment efforts and UI
eligibility conditions that promote the quick return of UI
beneficiaries to suitable work will be shared with state UI agencies.
States currently measure the entered employment rates of certain
limited categories of job seekers (for example, veterans and UI
claimants whose profiles indicate they are in the greatest need of
reemployment services) and convey this information through the ETA
reporting system. However, no reemployment data are currently collected
of the general population of UI beneficiaries. Therefore, during FY
2003, DOL developed and pilot-tested a reemployment rate measure for UI
beneficiaries in six states. The results of the pilot are discussed
below.
The Measure
ETA carefully considered several options for measuring the
reemployment of UI claimants:
Use currently reported Employment Service data to obtain
entered employment data for workforce investment system registrants who
were monetarily eligible for UI;
Crossmatch samples of UI recipients in the Benefit
Accuracy Measurement (BAM) (OMB Approval No. 1205-0245, expiring 6/07)
survey with state wage record files;
Crossmatch samples of UI claimants receiving first
payments with state wage record files; and
Crossmatch all UI claimants receiving first payments with
state wage record files.
ETA concluded that the most appropriate measure of claimant
reemployment is obtained by crossmatching all UI claimants who received
a first UI payment during a calendar quarter against state wage record
files in the subsequent quarter. This method for measuring the
reemployment of UI claimants:
Is comprehensive;
Yields reemployment rates that have no sampling
variability;
Should be reasonably easy to obtain because it so closely
resembles the wage record crossmatch states currently use for
overpayment detection;
Is similar in concept to Workforce Investment Act outcome
measures that use wage record data; and
Will not require extensive state staff time.
Pilot Description
States participating in the pilot identified UI claimants who
received first payments in each quarter of calendar year (CY) 2002 for
intrastate state UI claims--including combined wage claims (CWC) and
joint State UI/Federal claims (Unemployment Compensation for Federal
Employees and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (OMB
Approval No. 1205-0176, expiring 6/06)).
The states then ran computer crossmatches of the Social Security
Numbers (SSNs) of the claimants with the UI wage records for each of
the two quarters following the quarter of first payment and counted the
number of UI benefit recipients who had wages in the subsequent
quarters. The one-quarter and two-quarter reemployment rates equal the
ratios of total wage record matches in each of the quarters to the
number of claimants who receive a first payment.
In order to expedite data collection, only first payments for
intrastate claims and crossmatches of intrastate wage records were
included in the pilot. For national implementation of this measure, ETA
will pursue the technical changes required to include first payments
for interstate claims and wage records reported by out-of-state
employers in the crossmatch.
Pilot Results
The unadjusted reemployment rates for the six pilot states averaged
55.4 percent for the first quarter after receiving a first payment and
60.8 percent for the second quarter. Reemployment rates ranged from
52.9 percent to 71.9 percent for reemployment in the first subsequent
quarter, and from 55.4 percent to 75.1 percent for reemployment in the
second subsequent quarter.
These rates were adjusted to take into account those UI benefit
recipients who had earnings from temporary or part-time employment
during their period of eligibility for UI benefits, referred to as the
benefit year. These earnings generally reduce the amount of the
claimant's weekly benefit but do not eliminate it. Therefore, these
individuals are considered partially unemployed, not reemployed.
Benefit year earnings data are available from the BAM program, a
statistical survey designed to estimate the accuracy of paid and denied
UI claims. (BAM data are collected from random audits of UI claims
conducted by state BAM auditors.) For the six pilot states combined, an
estimated 7.1 percent of the claimants had earnings during the quarter
after their first payment and 7.9 percent had earnings two quarters
after their first payment but were not reemployed.
Applying the adjustment for claimant benefit year earnings, the
reemployment rates for the six states combined averaged 51.5 percent
for the first quarter after receiving a first payment and 56 percent
for the second quarter. Pilot results are summarized in the following
table.
[[Page 40663]]
Summary of UI Reemployment Measure Pilot Results
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State: ALL Run date 12/4/2003
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Number of Percent of Percent of
First payment cohort Number of Number Xmatch Xmatch Xmatch hits Xmatch hits
first payments hits YYYY.Q+1 YYYY.Q+2 YYYY.Q+1 YYYY.Q+2
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2002.Q1......................... 666,817 394,346 426,407 59.14 63.95
2002.Q2......................... 489.168 272.458 290.960 55.70 59.48
2002.Q3......................... 470.749 264.349 271.922 56.15 57.76
2002.Q4......................... 531,718 264,576 323.017 49.76 60.75
2002............................ 2,158,452 1,195,729 1,312,306 55.40 60.80
2002 Adjusted................... .............. .............. .............. 51.48 55.97
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Notes to the table:
(1) One state also provided rates based on the number of individuals receiving first payments (unique SSNs in
the file of first payments) in addition to the number of first payments. Reemployment rates averaged about 0.2
percentage points higher using this count.
(2) The number of first payments reported by one state includes some interstate claims. This state's interstate
population is relatively small compared to its intrastate population, and the state estimates that the effect
on the reemployment percentages is less than 1.5 percentage points.
Many factors affect the rate at which UI claimants become
reemployed. For example, the average unemployment rates in the six
pilot states for the period that the crossmatches were run (CY 2002,
2nd quarter, through CY 2003, 2nd quarter) ranged from 3.7 percent to
7.2 percent. The state with the lowest unemployment rate also had the
highest adjusted reemployment rates for both quarters. An initial
analysis of the pilot data indicates a close relationship between the
reemployment rate in a state and the state's total unemployment rate
and exhaustion rate. However, a larger evaluation would need to be
conducted to statistically substantiate this relationship. The analysis
of the pilot data is available on the ETA Web site at: http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/reemploypilot.asp
.
Although the pilot study collected data for two quarters subsequent
to the first payment quarter, ETA proposes to collect this information
for only the first subsequent quarter. Pilot results show differences
between the reemployment percentages for the first and second quarters
of only 5.4 percentage points (unadjusted) and 4.5 percentage points
(adjusted). This may indicate that the UI system is most likely to
facilitate reemployment of job-ready claimants relatively early in
their benefit years. Limiting data collection to a single quarter will
also reduce the cost.
II. Desired Focus of Comments
DOL is particularly interested in comments which:
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; and
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 submission of responses.
A copy of the proposed information collection request can be
obtained by contacting the office listed above in the addressee section
of this notice.
III. Current Actions
ETA proposes to: (1) Require State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) to
report quarterly data on the number of UI claimants receiving first
payments for UI benefits during a calendar quarter and the number of
those claimants who have earnings in the next calendar quarter; (2) use
these data to construct a reemployment rate to measure the UI program
goal of facilitating the reemployment of UI claimants; (3) adjust the
reemployment rate for the proportion of claimants who receive earnings
for partial employment but are not considered reemployed; and (4)
identify and separate the effects of labor market and UI program
characteristics on the state's reemployment rate from the efforts and
actions of states to facilitate the reemployment of UI claimants.
At least six months prior to implementation, ETA will disseminate
to the SWAs the technical specifications needed to implement this data
collection system. States will electronically transmit the reports to
ETA according to the following schedule.
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Quarter in which first payment is issued Report due to ETA by
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1st quarter (January to March)............ November 30.
2nd quarter (April to June)............... February 28.
3rd quarter (July to September)........... May 31.
4th quarter (October to December)......... August 31.
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ETA will provide states with the resources for startup costs and
operation costs for the first year of data collection, as described in
the burden cost sections below.
Type of Review: New.
Agency: Employment and Training Administration.
Title: Unemployment Insurance Facilitation of Claimant
Reemployment.
Recordkeeping: States are required to follow their state laws
regarding public record retention in retaining records for this
proposed data collection system.
Affected Public: State Workforce Agencies (SWAs).
Frequency: Quarterly.
Total Respondents: 53 SWAs.
Total Responses: 212 per year (53 SWAs x 4 quarterly reports per
year).
Estimated Time Per Response: SWA staff--10 hours.
Total Burden Hours: 2,120 hours.
Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $53,000 (53 SWAs at $1,000 per
SWA).
Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): $79,500 (annual) (53
SWAs at $1,500 per SWA).
Comments submitted in response to this request will be summarized
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the information
collection request; they will also become a matter of public record.
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Signed in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2004.
Emily Stover DeRocco,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training.
[FR Doc. 04-15174 Filed 7-2-04; 8:45 am]
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