Note to Reviewer

09-14-2010

Note to Reviewer of 1220-0181

The 2010 Congressional Appropriation tasks the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program has been with producing data on green goods and services business employment. This initiative will produce regular tabulations of aggregate employment and wages for businesses whose primary activities fall into green goods and services as defined by BLS.  These series will be key to analyzing workforce trends in this area.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved an emergency clearance for the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) Green Goods and Services Sector Industry Pre-testing through a Notice of Action, dated March 23, 2010. The purpose of that request for clearance was for the QCEW program to initiate a research project to understand the collection environment and learn what information establishments have available that would help BLS collect data on green goods and services industry employment. As part of that approved information collection, BLS agreed to submit changes to the pre-testing materials to OMB through a non-substantive change request. This request provides those updated materials; specifically it includes the materials for panel 4 forms testing (an advance letter, forms booklets, and non-response and follow-up scripts).

The research project plan includes feasibility and cognitive interviews, data collection forms design, panel testing, and follow-up interviews. Updates to the materials are outlined below.

• Data collection forms design / Panel testing - BLS plans to test multiple variations on a form during this research project. BLS plans to test the form variations on panels of respondents. The panels will be mailed the forms and will be asked to return the forms by mail. Non-response prompting and edit reconciliation processes will also be tested and conducted on these panels.

Panel 4 – An advance letter for panel 4 is included along with cover letters and forms. Changes have been made based on results from panel 3. Testing continues on the use of an advance mailing and cover letters are now attached to the forms to create a forms booklet.

• Follow-up interviews – BLS plans to contact establishments that responded and establishments that did not respond to the form during panel testing to ask about the form, difficulty in completion, respondents’ understanding of the questions to assess response error, and reasons for non-response. All interviews will be conducted by an experienced interviewer.

Updates have been made to the follow-up and non-response scripts that were included in the full information collection package.