[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 2, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Page 19212]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09275]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0175.
Form Number(s): MQ-C2.
Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Number of Respondents: 7,500.
Average Hours Per Response: 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Burden Hours: 62,500.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau, on behalf of the Federal
Reserve Board (FRB) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), within the
Department of Defense (DOD), requests an extension of approval for the
Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QPC). The survey
provides information on use of industrial capacity in manufacturing and
publishing plants as defined by the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS). The survey is the only governmental
source of capacity utilization rates at industry levels. Changes in
capacity utilization are considered important indicators of investment
demand and inflationary pressure. For these reasons, the estimates of
capacity utilization are closely monitored by government policy makers
and private sector decision makers.
The survey collects the value of quarterly production, the value of
production that could be achieved if operating under ``full
production'' capability, and the value of production that could be
achieved if operating under ``emergency production'' capability. The
ratio of the actual to the full is the basis of the estimates for full
capacity utilization rates and similarly, the actual to the emergency
for the emergency capacity utilization rates. The survey also collects
information by shift, on work patterns at the actual production level.
The FRB is the primary user of the current QPC data and expressed
the need for these quarterly data. FRB publishes measures of industrial
production (IP), capacity, and capacity utilization in its G.17
statistical release, which has been designated by the federal
government as a Principal Federal Economic Indicator. Utilization rates
from the QPC survey are a principle source for the measures of capacity
and capacity utilization. The indexes of IP are either estimated from
physical product data or estimated from monthly data on inputs to the
production process, specifically production worker hours and an
indicator of capital input. For many years, data on electric power use
was used as the indicator of industry capital input. The deregulation
of electricity markets led to the deterioration in the coverage and
quality of the electricity data. As a result, in November 2005, the FRB
discontinued its use of the industrial electric power data in the
current estimates of IP. In order to maintain the quality of the IP
index, the collection of these quarterly data, including the
utilization rate data and the workweek of capital, is critical to the
indicators of capital input use and industry output.
The FRB uses these data in several ways. First, the QPC data are
the primary source of information for the capacity indexes and
utilization rates published by the FRB. Second, the QPC utilization
rate data are used as indicators of output for some industries in the
estimation of monthly IP. Third, the QPC utilization rate data and the
workweek data are used to improve the projections of labor productivity
that are used to align IP with comprehensive benchmark information from
the Economic Census covering the Manufacturing sector and the Annual
Survey of Manufactures. Finally, utilization rate data will assist in
the assessment of recent changes in IP, as most of the high-frequency
movement in utilization rates reflect production changes rather than
capacity changes.
The DLA uses the data to assess industrial base readiness and ramp-
up time to meet demand for goods under selected national emergency
scenarios.
In addition to the FRB and DLA uses, these data are published on
the Census Bureau's website, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/qpc.html.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
Frequency: Quarterly.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Section 8(b) (Census
authority); 50 U.S.C., Section 98, et seq. (FRB authority); and 12
U.S.C., Section 244 (DOD authority).
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce
collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-09275 Filed 5-1-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P