[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 82 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23124-23126]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-10726]
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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 and Federal agencies
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. Currently, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed
reinstatement, with change, of the ``National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth 79.'' 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 below on or before June 28, 1999 The Bureau of Labor
Statistics is particularly interested in comments which:
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the function of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the
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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.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Karin G. Kruz, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 3255,
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20212. Ms. Kruz can be
reached on 202-606-7628 (this is not a toll free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Conducted since 1979, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79
(NLSY79) consists of a nationally representative sample of individuals
who were ages 14 to 21 in 1979. The cohort members were interviewed
annually from 1979 to 1994. After the 1994 interview, the survey was
moved to a biennial cycle.
The data collected in the NLSY79 will contribute to the knowledge
about labor market processes involved in transitions between jobs, job
searches, and hierarchies within jobs. Survey data will contribute to
the knowledge about individuals' ability to succeed in the job market
and how levels of success relate to educational attainment, vocational
training, prior occupational experiences, and general and job-specific
experiences.
The NLSY79 research contributes to the formation of national policy
in the areas of education, training and employment programs, and
unemployment compensation. In addition, members of the academic
community publish articles and reports based on these NLSY79 data for
the Department of Labor (DOL) and other funding agencies. The DOL uses
the changes measured in the labor market to design programs that would
ease employment and unemployment problems. The survey design provides
data gathered over time to form the only data set that contains this
information. Without the collection of these data, an accurate
longitudinal data set could not be provided to researchers and policy-
makers, and the DOL could not perform its policy- and report-making
activities, as described above.
II. Current Actions
This proposed collection covers wave 19 of this longitudinal study
of individuals who were age 14 through 21 on December 31, 1978. The DOL
will interview these youths in the year 2000 to study how young adults
make the transition from full-time schooling through the establishment
of their families and careers, and into the prime earning years that
precede retirement. The longitudinal focus of this survey requires the
collection of information on the same individuals over many years in
order to trace their education, training, work experience, fertility,
income and program participation. This detail makes the NLSY79 a unique
national resource, unmatched by existing programs. Participation in the
survey by other government agencies is encouraged as the omnibus nature
of the survey makes it an efficient, low-cost data set. Recent rounds
of the survey increasingly incorporate items needed for program and
policy purposes by agencies other than the DOL.
Information about the aptitudes of the children of the female
respondents in the youth data set will be collected. For the most part,
this is a repetition of instruments already administered biennially to
these children in 1986. This will permit medical and social science
researchers to uniquely consider a large number of basic research
issues relating to the associations between family background, federal
program activities, infant and maternal health and outcomes from early
childhood through adolescence. Thus, while the principal focus of the
survey remains the collection of data for labor force analysis, the
questionnaires administered to these children include items needed by
other agencies that are not always directly related to employment and
training studies. However, as these children reach adolescence the
focus of the surveys on these ``young adults'' returns to the school-
to-work transition.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
(1) Explore the early labor market activity and family formation of
individuals in this age group;
(2) Explore in greater depth than has until now been possible the
complex economic, social, and psychological factors responsible for
variation in the labor market experience of this cohort;
(3) Analyze the impact of a changing socio-economic environment on
the educational and labor market experiences of this cohort by
comparing data from the present study with those yielded by the surveys
of the earlier NLS cohorts of young men (1966) and young women (1968)
as well as the NLS cohort of young men and women interviewed for the
first time in 1997;
(4) Consider how employment-related activities of women impact the
subsequent cognitive and emotional development of their children; and
(5) Meet the data collection and research needs of various
government agencies that have been interested in the relationships
between child and maternal health, other child outcomes, drug and
alcohol use, juvenile deviant behavior and education, employment, and
family experiences.
Type of Review: Reinstatement, with change, of a previously
approved collection.
Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Title: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79.
OMB Number: 1220-0109.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: Biennially.
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Total
Total number Total annual Average estimated
Form of responses minutes per annual
respondents response burden hours
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Pretest................................................. 50 50 60 50
Young Adults............................................ 8,300 8,300 60 8,300
Reinterview............................................. 1,250 1,250 6 125
Children of Female Respondents.......................... 6,390 6,390 52 5,538
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Totals.............................................. 15,990 15,990 ............ 14,013
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Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
Total Burden Cost (operating/maintenance): $0.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or
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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, D.C., this 23rd day of April 1999.
W. Stuart Rust, Jr.,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 99-10726 Filed 4-28-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-M