Notice2024-29834
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS)
Primary source
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Published
December 18, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Abstract
The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, invites 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. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the proposed revisions to the BTOS prior to the submission of the information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 102854-102855]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-29834]
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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; Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS)
AGENCY: Census Bureau, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, invites 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. The
purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the
proposed revisions to the BTOS prior to the submission of the
information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval.
DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed
information collection must be received on or before February 18, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments by
email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b5e1dddad8d4c69bff9be6d8dcc1ddf5d6d0dbc6c0c69bd2dac3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="53073b3c3e32207d197d003e3a273b1330363d2026207d343c25">[email protected]</span></a>. Please reference BTOS in the
subject line of your comments. You may also submit comments, identified
by Docket Number USCB-2024-0034, to the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal:
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. All comments received are part of the
public record. No comments will be posted to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>
for public viewing until after the comment period has closed. Comments
will generally be posted without change. All Personally Identifiable
Information (for example, name and address) voluntarily submitted by
the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential
Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
You may submit attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word,
Excel, or Adobe PDF file formats.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
specific questions related to collection activities should be directed
to Catherine Buffington, Chief, Economic Indicator Division, 301-763-
1838, and <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#620103160a07100b0c074c064c001704040b0c05160d0c2201070c1117114c050d14"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d5b6b4a1bdb0a7bcbbb0fbb1fbb7a0b3b3bcbbb2a1babb95b6b0bba6a0a6fbb2baa3">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The U.S. Census Bureau plans to request a 3-year extension with
revisions from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the
Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS). The BTOS has produced data
products on a bi-weekly basis since October 2022. This continuous near
real time data collection and publication provides a baseline of the
U.S. economy and measures change as a result of current and future
economic shocks.
BTOS uses ongoing data collection to produce high frequency,
timely, and granular information about current economic conditions and
trends. BTOS is the only biweekly business tendency survey produced by
the federal statistical system, providing unique and detailed data
during times of economic or other emergencies. The BTOS target
population is all nonfarm employer businesses with receipts of $1,000
or more in the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico. The current sample consists of approximately 1.2 million
businesses divided into six panels. A new sample collection is
conducted each year. Data collection occurs every two weeks, and
businesses in each panel are asked to report once every 12 weeks for
one year. Data are released every 2 weeks and are available by 2017
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) sector, state,
the 25 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas and employment
size. Data are also available by subsector (3-digit NAICS) and sector
by employment size.
Data from BTOS are currently used to provide timely data to
understand the economic conditions being experienced by businesses;
BTOS provides near real time data on key items such as revenue, paid
employees, hours worked as well as inventories. BTOS also provides high
level information on the changing share of businesses facing
difficulties stemming from supply chain issues, interest rate changes,
and/or weather-related events. Previously, there had been few data
sources available to policymakers, media outlets, and academia that
delivered near real time insights into economic trends and outlooks.
BTOS data has consistently been used by the Small Business
Administration to evaluate the impact of regulatory changes.
The BTOS collects the following high-level topics for the previous
two weeks, and the items in bold have 6-month future projections:
<bullet> Overall performance
<bullet> Revenue
<bullet> Employment
<bullet> Hours worked
<bullet> Artificial Intelligence
<bullet> Operating status
<bullet> Inventories
<bullet> Delivery time
<bullet> Demand
<bullet> Output prices
<bullet> Input prices
<bullet> Interest Rates
<bullet> Loss--Weather Event
For the first year of BTOS, the content remained unchanged at 26
questions. For the second sample year, the BTOS moved to a set of core
questions and supplemental content. Supplemental content is designed to
provide urgently needed data on an emerging or current issue. For the
first collection of supplemental content, the topic was on business use
of artificial intelligence. Due to vast demand to continue this data
series, the Census Bureau plans to request a revision to include the
artificial intelligence supplement again for the fourth sample year of
BTOS.
BTOS data is collected in near real time and disseminated as
experimental products. BTOS data is experimental
[[Page 102855]]
with the goal of meeting Census Bureau quality standards for regularly
occurring, non-experimental statistics.
II. Method of Collection
The first time each biweekly panel is in sample, businesses are
contacted either by email or letter with an invitation to respond to
the survey. For each biweekly survey panel, initial letters are sent on
the Friday before the 2-week period while initial emails are sent on
the first Monday of the 2-week period. Starting with the second time
each biweekly panel is in sample, businesses are contacted only by
email with an invitation to respond to the survey. Both letter and
email invitations describe the purpose of the survey collection,
include the link to the online reporting tool, and contain the access
code.
III. Data
OMB Control Number: 0607-1022.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Review: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a
Currently Approved Collection.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 795,000 responses collected
annually.
Estimated Time per Response: 10 minutes.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 132,500.
Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0 (This is not the cost of
respondents' time, but the indirect costs respondents may incur for
such things as purchases of specialized software or hardware needed to
report, or expenditures for accounting or records maintenance services
required specifically by the collection.)
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131 and 182.
IV. Request for Comments
We are soliciting public comments to permit the Department/Bureau
to: (a) Evaluate whether the proposed information collection is
necessary for the proper functions of the Department, including whether
the information will have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the accuracy
of our estimate of the time and cost burden for this proposed
collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions
used; (c) Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of
the information to be collected; and (d) Minimize the reporting burden
on those who are to respond, including the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology.
Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of
public record. We will include, or summarize, each comment in our
request to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address,
phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information
in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--
including your personal identifying information--may be made publicly
available at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold
your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-29834 Filed 12-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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