attachment 5_Background calculations

STAR METRICS was established in response to the guidance which also states federal
agencies, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall
provide for user-friendly means for recipients of covered funds to meet the requirements of
this section. (Section G)
Direct jobs created and retained from science awards are calculated from four sources:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Individuals working directly on the project;
Employment within overhead
Employment of vendors
Employment of individuals on sub-awards

This maps to the data element: "Description of Jobs Created/Retained" which requires
A. A narrative description of the employment impact of the Recovery Act funded work.
This narrative is for each calendar quarter and at a minimum, will address the impact
on the recipient’s or federal contractor’s workforce (for grants and loans, recipients
shall also include the impact on the workforces of sub recipients and vendors).
B. Provide a brief narrative description of the types of jobs created and jobs retained in
the United States and outlying areas. This description may rely on job titles, broader
labor categories, or the recipient’s existing practice for describing jobs as long as the
terms used are widely understood and describe the general nature of the work.
Source: Recipient Reporting Data Model - for quarter ending 12/31/2009 (www.recovery.gov)
Prime recipients of grants, cooperative agreements, and loans must include an estimate of jobs
created and retained on projects and activities managed by their funding recipients (i.e. subrecipients) in the numeric and narrative data fields mentioned in 5.2.3 above. See Section 5.7 for
further details. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-08.pdf
1. Direct Jobs Calculated from Individuals Employed
Information Requested
Required for element calculation
De-identified Employee ID #
Parts A and B below
Federal Award ID #
Verification and data quality check
University Award ID #
Verification and data quality check
Occupational Classification
Part B below
Proportion of time allocated to award
Parts A and B below
FTE status
Parts A and B below
Calculation for Part A: 𝑁
𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑜𝑓
𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙
𝑛′ 𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 ∗ 𝐹𝑇𝐸𝑛
𝑛=1
Calculation for Part B is the same as Part A

The approach is identical to the discussion in the Peter Orszag memo of Dec 18 2009 (attached) although using proportion of earnings, rather than proportion of hours (which is often not
captured in HR systems).

2. Direct Jobs Calculated from Overhead
Information Requested
Federal Award ID #
University Award ID #
Overhead charged
Report to cognizant agency

Required for element calculation
Verification and data quality check
Verification and data quality check
Calculation
Calculation

The overhead expenditures will be combined with the information provided in the report to
cognizant agency1 to generate an estimate of the salaries paid out of the grant. This will be
converted to jobs by using County Business Patterns data for NAICS code 61.
http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/index.html
3. Direct Costs Calculated from the Employment of Vendors
1

http://rates.psc.gov/fms/dca/shortform1.pdf

Information Requested
Federal Award ID #
University Award ID #
Duns #
Amount of Contract

Required for element calculation
Validation
Validation
Calculation
Calculation

The Duns # will be used to derive an industry code and geographic location. The amount of
contract revenues will be ratio-ed to generate employment estimates derived from Economic
Census data
http://www.census.gov/econ/census07/
The guidance requires that grant recipients directly get that information from vendors. The
results will help guide the assessment of the quality of the responses. As the project broadens,
these calculations can be directly generated from the administrative records of the respondents
themselves.
4. Direct Jobs Calculated from the Employment on Sub Awards
Information Requested
Federal Award ID #
University Award ID #
Duns #
Amount of Contract

Required for element calculation
Validation
Validation
Calculation
Calculation

The Duns # will be used to derive an industry code and geographic location. The amount of
contract revenues will be ratioed to generate employment estimates derived from Economic
Census data
http://www.census.gov/econ/census07/
As above, the Duns # will be used to derive an industry code and geographic location. The
amount of contract revenues will be ratioed to generate employment estimates derived from
Economic Census data
http://www.census.gov/econ/census07/
The guidance requires that grant recipients directly get that information from vendors. The
results will help guide the assessment of the quality of the responses. As the project broadens,
these calculations can be directly generated from the administrative records of the respondents
themselves.
1

http://rates.psc.gov/fms/dca/shortform1.pdf