Notice2024-01127
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Annual Business Survey
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 22, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 14 (Monday, January 22, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3905-3906]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01127]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Annual Business Survey
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register on September 22, 2023 during a 60-day comment period.
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
Title: Annual Business Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607-1004.
Form Number(s): ABS-1.
Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a
Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 338,000.
Average Hours per Response: 58 minutes.
Burden Hours: 325,200.
Needs and Uses: In an effort to improve the measurement of business
dynamics in the United States, the Census Bureau is conducting the 2024
Annual Business Survey (ABS), covering reference year 2023. The ABS
combines Census Bureau firm-level collections to reduce respondent
burden, increase data quality, reduce operational costs, and operate
more efficiently. The ABS provides information on selected economic and
demographic characteristics for businesses and business owners by sex,
ethnicity, race, and veteran status. Further, the survey measures
research and development for microbusinesses, new business topics such
as innovation and technology, as well as other business
characteristics. The 2024 ABS is co-sponsored by the National Center
for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by the Census Bureau.
The ABS includes all nonfarm employer businesses filing Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms as individual proprietorships,
partnerships, or any other type of corporation, with receipts of $1,000
or more. While the 2023 ABS sampled approximately 850,000 employer
businesses to produce detailed statistics by owner demographics, the
2024 ABS sample is reduced to approximately 330,000 employer
businesses. Starting with survey year 2024 (reference year 2023), the
sample is reduced to approximately 330,000 employer businesses annually
(survey years 2024-2027) to reduce the burden on the respondents. The
reduced sample size will yield summary-level estimates for women-owned,
minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses at the 4-digit
[[Page 3906]]
NAICS, U.S., state metropolitan statistical area (MSA), and county
levels. The Census Bureau uses administrative data to estimate the
probability that a firm is minority- or women-owned. Each firm is then
placed in one of eight frames for sampling. The sampling frames are:
American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American,
Hispanic, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic
White Men, Publicly Owned, and Women. The sample is stratified by
state, industry, and frame. The Census Bureau selects some companies
with certainty based on volume of sales, payroll, and number of paid
employees or NAICS. All certainty cases are sure to be selected and
represent only themselves.
The 2024 ABS (reference year 2023) will also sample 8,000 nonprofit
organizations to collect their research activities. Historically,
nonprofit organizations were in scope to the ABS, however, they were
not surveyed before the 2021 ABS because the survey does not expect
nonprofit organizations to be classifiable by sex, ethnicity, race, or
veteran status. To include the nonprofit organizations, the total ABS
sample size is approximately 338,000 (330,000 employer businesses +
8,000 nonprofit organizations) for the 2024 survey. Of note, nonprofit
organizations will only see questions relating to research activities
and will not be asked any questions relating to owner demographics.
The ABS is designed to allow for incorporating new content each
survey year based on topics of relevance. Each year, new questions will
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval.
Employer businesses will be asked questions about the sex,
ethnicity, race, and veteran status for up to four persons owning the
majority of rights, equity, or interest in the business. Additionally,
businesses will be asked a question on gender identify as part of the
owner section of the questionnaire. Organizations sampled as nonprofits
and respondents with 1-9 employees will be asked about research and
development (R&D) activities, R&D costs, and R&D capital expenditures.
Further, employer businesses sampled will be asked about the following
topics: Goods, Services, and Business Processes; Technology Transfer
and Intellectual Property; Domestic and Foreign Transactions; and
Management Practices. The 2024 ABS initial mailing is scheduled for
July 2024.
Statistics from the ABS will be used by government program
officials, industry organization leaders, economic and social analysts,
business entrepreneurs, and domestic and foreign researchers in
academia, business, and government. Estimates produced on owner
demographic data may be used to assess business assistance needs,
allocate available program resources, and create a framework for
planning, directing, and assessing programs that promote the activities
of disadvantaged groups; to assess minority-owned businesses by
industry and area and to educate industry associations, corporations,
and government entities; to analyze business operations in comparison
to similar firms, compute market share, and assess business growth and
future prospects. Estimates produced on R&D and innovation may be used
to compare R&D costs across industries, determine where R&D activity is
conducted geographically, and identify the types of businesses with
R&D; to contribute to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) system of
national accounts; to increase investments in research and development,
strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship; and to compare
business innovation in the United States to other countries, including
those in the European Union. Results of the research activities data
collected from nonprofit organizations will be used to report updated,
valid, and reliable estimates of U.S. nonprofit R&D in National
Patterns of R&D Resources and BEA's system of national accounts.
The data collected by ABS will also be incorporated into the
National Science Board's biennial report, Science and Engineering
Indicators (SEI). The R&D data from the nonprofit module will be
reported in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) periodic publications and for international comparisons of R&D
efforts. NCSES also anticipates professional associations will use data
from the nonprofit module. Likely users in this category include, but
are not limited to, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, the Association
of Independent Research Institutes, and the Health Research Alliance.
Additional examples of data use include:
<bullet> The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Minority
Business Development Agency (MBDA) to assess business assistance needs
and allocate available program resources.
<bullet> Local government commissions on small and disadvantaged
businesses to establish and evaluate contract procurement practices.
<bullet> Federal, state, and local government agencies as a
framework for planning, directing and assessing programs that promote
the activities of disadvantaged groups.
<bullet> The National Women's Business Council to assess the state
of women's business ownership for policymakers, researchers, and the
public at large.
<bullet> Consultants and researchers to analyze long-term economic
and demographic shifts, and differences in ownership and performance
among geographic areas.
<bullet> Individual business owners to analyze their operations in
comparison to similar firms, compute their market share, and assess
their growth and future prospects.
Frequency: Annually.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 8(b), 131,
and 182; Title 42, United States Code, Section 1861-76 (National
Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended); and Section 505 within the
America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 authorize this collection.
Sections 224 and 225 of Title 13, United States Code, require a
response from sampled firms.
This information collection request may be viewed at
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB
Control Number 0607-1004.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-01127 Filed 1-19-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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