[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 134 (Wednesday, July 13, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41302-41304]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17521]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Proposed Collection, Comment Request
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance
consultation program to provide the general public
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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 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
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the
proposed new collection of a module of questions about well-being, to
follow the American Time Use Survey in 2012. A copy of the proposed
information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the
individual listed below in the ADDRESSES section of this notice.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
ADDRESSES section of this notice on or before September 12, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Carol Rowan, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080,
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212. Written comments
also may be transmitted by fax to 202-691-5111 (this is not a toll free
number).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol Rowan, BLS Clearance Officer, at
202-691-7628 (this is not a toll free number). (See ADDRESSES section.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The ATUS is the Nation's first Federally administered, continuous
survey on time use in the United States. It measures, for example, time
spent with children, working, sleeping, or doing leisure activities. In
the United States, several existing Federal surveys collect income and
wage data for individuals and families, and analysts often use such
measures of material prosperity as proxies for quality of life. Time-
use data substantially augment these quality-of-life measures. The data
also can be used in conjunction with wage data to evaluate the
contribution of non-market work to national economies. This enables
comparisons of production between nations that have different mixes of
market and non-market activities.
The ATUS develops nationally representative estimates of how people
spend their time. Respondents also report who was with them during
activities, where they were, how long each activity lasted, and if they
were paid. All of this information has numerous practical applications
for sociologists, economists, educators, government policymakers,
businesspersons, health researchers, and others.
II. Current Action
Office of Management and Budget clearance is being sought for a
2012 Well-being Module of questions to follow the American Time Use
Survey (ATUS). The Well-being Module, if approved, will collect
information about how people experience their time, specifically how
happy, tired, sad, stressed, and in pain they felt yesterday.
Respondents will be asked these questions about three randomly-selected
activities from the activities reported in the ATUS time diary. The
time diary refers to the core part of the ATUS, in which respondents
report the activities they did from 4 a.m. on the day before the
interview to 4 a.m. on the day of the interview. A few activities, such
as sleeping and private activities, will never be selected. The module
also will collect data on whether people were interacting with anyone
while doing the selected activities and how meaningful the activities
were to them. Some general health questions, a question about overall
life satisfaction, and a question about respondents' overall emotional
experience yesterday also will be asked.
The data from the proposed Well-being Module will support the BLS
mission of providing relevant information on economic and social
issues. The data will provide a richer description of work;
specifically, it will measure how workers feel (tired, stressed, in
pain) during work episodes compared to non-work episodes, and how often
workers interact on the job. It can also measure whether the amount of
pain workers experience varies by occupation and disability status.
The data also will closely support the mission of the module's
sponsor, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National
Institutes of Health, to improve the health and well-being of older
Americans. By analyzing the module data, the experience of pain and
aging can be studied. Some of the questions that can be answered
include:
Do older workers experience more pain on and off the job?
Is the age-pain gradient related to differences in
activities or differences in the amount of pain experienced during a
given set of activities?
Do those in poor health spend time in different
activities?
Additionally, the proposed module will allow researchers to take
advantage of an important change that was made to the ATUS in 2011.
Questions that identify eldercare providers and eldercare activities
were added to the survey. The well-being of eldercare providers is of
interest to the NIA and policymakers because the elderly population is
growing, along with a reliance on informal care providers to assist
them. A 2012 Well-being Module would allow researchers to study the
well-being of eldercare providers.
The proposed Well-being Module is nearly identical to a module that
was collected in 2010 under the ATUS OMB Number (1220-0175); however,
the 2012 version includes two additional questions and will be
collected under a new OMB Number as a supplement to the ATUS. These new
questions will collect data on individuals' overall life satisfaction
and their emotional experience yesterday. Information about life
satisfaction will complement the moment-to-moment affect measures of
well-being and provide an additional dimension to analyses of these
data. Information about individuals' overall emotional experience
yesterday will be used to explain variance in responses to the affect
questions.
The proposed Well-being Module will follow directly after the 2012
ATUS. ATUS collection is done on a continuous basis with the sample
drawn monthly. The survey sample is drawn from households completing
their final month of interviews for the Current Population Survey
(CPS). Households are selected to ensure a representative demographic
sample, and one individual from each household is selected to take part
in one Computer Assisted Telephone Interview. The interview asks
respondents to report all of their activities for one pre-assigned 24-
hour day, the day prior to the interview. A short series of summary
questions and CPS updates follows the core time diary collection.
The proposed questions about well-being are being sponsored by the
NIA. These questions will replace a module of questions about leave
that is being fielded for the 2011 calendar year. Like the 2011 Leave
Module, the proposed 2012 Well-being Module also will be included for
12 months (through December 2012).
III. Desired Focus of Comments
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is particularly interested in
comments that:
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the
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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.
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 submissions of responses.
Type of Review: New collection.
Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Title: American Time Use Survey.
OMB Number: 1220-NEW.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Total Respondents: 13,200.
Frequency: Monthly.
Total Responses: 13,200.
Average Time per Response: 5 minutes.
Estimated Total Burden Hours: 1,100 hours.
Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
Total Burden Cost (operating/maintenance): $0.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a
matter of public record.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 7th day of July 2011.
Kimberley Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2011-17521 Filed 7-12-11; 8:45 am]
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