[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 207 (Monday, October 27, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63945-63946]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-25421]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Comment Request for Information Collection for the Jobs and
Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC) and Advanced Manufacturing JIAC
(AM-JIAC) Grants, New Collection
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Labor.
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 preclearance
consultation program to provide the 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 [44
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)] (PRA). The PRA helps ensure that respondents can
provide requested data in the desired format with minimal reporting
burden (time and financial resources), with collection instruments that
are clearly understood, and that the impact of collection requirements
on respondents can be properly assessed.
Currently, ETA is soliciting comments concerning the collection of
data for the evaluation of the JIAC and AM-JIAC grants and seeks
approval for two rounds of in-person visits to a subset of grantee
clusters and a survey of an estimated 330 respondents across all 30
grants. The site visits will involve nine purposefully selected
clusters in round one and a return visit to three of those clusters in
round two. The visits will consist of semi-structured interviews about
implementation of the JIAC initiative to be conducted with cluster
management staff, activity leaders, frontline staff, participants, the
local workforce investment boards, employer groups, and local economic
development agencies. The survey will involve at least 11 respondents
in each of the 30 clusters. Respondents within each cluster will
include one cluster manager, one ETA funding stream administrator (if
this person is different from the cluster manager) and either nine or
10 additional partner organizations. The survey will focus on cluster
organization, communication, funding sufficiency, the types and
usefulness of Federal support, and program management and
sustainability.
DATES: Submit written comments to the office listed in the addresses
section below on or before December 26, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Gloria Salas-Kos, Office of Policy
Development and Research, Room N5641, Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-693-3596 (this is not a
toll-free number). Individuals with hearing or speech impairments may
access the telephone number above via TTY by calling the toll-free
Federal Information Relay Service at 1-877-889-5627 (TTY/TDD). Fax:
202-693-2766. Email: [email protected]. To obtain a copy of the
proposed information collection request, please contact the person
listed below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gloria Salas-Kos, Office of Policy
Development and Research, Room N5641, Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-693-3596 (this is not a
toll-free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
As of May 2011, when the first round of JIAC grants was issued, the
unemployment rate in the United States was nine percent. Almost 14
million people were looking for jobs. Although the rate of unemployment
has since fallen by almost two percentage points, it remains higher
than at any point over the decade leading up to the ``Great Recession''
that began in 2007. As the population has continued to grow, job growth
has surfaced to the top of the nation's economic agenda. The economic
downturn has led to greater attention to the role of regional
innovation clusters as drivers for improving the economy, creating jobs
and employment, and enhancing U.S. competitiveness.
ETA has been an active Federal partner in the funding and promotion
of regional innovation clusters for the past decade. Specifically, it
has sought to address one of the challenges that the clusters face as
they pursue economic growth: Employers in some high-wage industries
with the potential for creating jobs report trouble finding American
workers with the skills to fill the vacancies. Under the authority of
section 414(c) of the American Competitiveness and Workforce
Improvement Act of 1998, as amended (29 U.S.C. 2916a), ETA invests
heavily in grants to build the skills and qualifications of domestic
unemployed workers so that they can fill these positions and reduce the
need for foreign workers under the H-1B visa program. In 2011 and 2012,
ETA partnered with other Federal funding agencies to support the JIAC
grants competitions; ETA has commissioned this study to evaluate and
learn from these investments.
The evaluation will address the following five key research
questions:
1. What is the role of multiagency collaboration in the planning
and implementation of cluster activities?
2. How and in what ways do regional clusters, programs, and
partnerships develop under the grant?
3. What workforce-related outcomes do the clusters report achieving
through this initiative?
[[Page 63946]]
4. How is the initiative managed within each cluster? What
practices are being implemented to promote sustainability of grant
resources, partnerships, and activities?
5. What are key lessons learned through implementation? How and
under what circumstances might these lessons be replicated?
II. Review Focus
The Department 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 submissions of responses.
III. Current Actions
Type of Review: New collection.
Title: Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge grants evaluation.
OMB Number: 1205--0NEW.
Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit, and not-for-profit
institutions.
Burden and Cost Estimates for JIAC Collection
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Total
Number of Burden per respondent Total burden
respondents response burden cost
(minutes) (hours)
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Site Visits Total............................... .............. .............. 192.75 $3,867
Round 1 total................................... 165 52 142.50 2,849
Cluster members............................. 147 55 133.50 2,705
Program participants........................ 18 30 9.00 144
Round 2 total................................... 54 56 50.25 1018
Cluster members............................. 54 56 50.25 1018
Survey Total.................................... .............. .............. 141.50 2,867
Cluster member contact information 30 30 15.00 304
submission.................................
Online survey completion........................ 330 23 126.50 2,563
Total for Site Visits and Survey........ .............. .............. 334.25 6,734
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Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden: $0.
We will summarize, and/or include in the request for OMB approval
of the ICR, the comments received in response to this comment request;
they will also become a matter of public record.
Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2014-25421 Filed 10-24-14; 8:45 am]
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