The Secretary has interpreted applicable sections of Federal law to require States to identify claimants who are most likely to exhaust their Unemployment Insurance benefits and to provide reemployment services to expedite their return to suitable work. The ETA 9048 report provides a count of the claimants who were referred to Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) and a count of those who completed the services. A second report (ETA 9049) provides the subsequent collection of wage records which is a useful management tool for monitoring the success of the WPRS program in the state.
This ICR seeks an increase of 2,819,889 hours and 2,685,720 responses.
The Department previously considered the relevant information exchanges between States and beneficiaries and the corresponding recordkeeping to be a routine business practice that would have occurred absent Federal action. The Department now believes some burden may exist only because of the Federal requirement. In the absence of data on actual routine business practices in this regard, the agency is claiming the full burden. This change in analysis results in a burden increase of 2,819,889 hours and 2,685,508 responses.
In addition, this ICR reconciles a previous inadvertent inconsistency in how the supporting statement and ROCIS entries treated burden for Forms ETA-9048 and ETA 9049. Previously the data entry suggested 1 single 30-minute response per State. This ICR counts two 15-minute responses, one for each form, per State. This change does not change the burden hours, but the number of responses increases by 212.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.