The Annual Refiling Survey (ARS) is used in conjunction with the Unemployment Insurance tax reporting system in each State. The primary purpose of the ARS is to verify or to correct the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to establishments as well as to obtain accurate mailing and physical location addresses of establishments. As a result, changes in the industrial and geographical compositions of the economy are captured in a timely manner and reflected in the BLS statistical programs. Federal, State, and local government officials as well as private researchers depend on accurate geographical and industrial coding based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System Manual. BLS routinely shares NAICS codes with the Census Bureau to improve consistency, reduce costs and burden, and improve the accuracy of their products.
The increase in total hours requested, from 100,296 to 109,881, is due to increased efforts to collect information from more establishments that are in NAICS Code 999999. These are unclassified establishments (NCA) for which there is no information currently available about their industrial activities. Online collection has made it easier to pursue data from unclassified establishments and more NCA contacts are attempted than in past years. Thus, the combined number of NVS, NVM, and NCA responses and total burden hours requested have increased.
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.