Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Small Business Pulse Survey
| Citation | 86 FR 17353 |
| Record Number | 2021-06803 |
| Published date | 02 April 2021 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Census Bureau,Commerce Department |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 62 (Friday, April 2, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 62 (Friday, April 2, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17353-17354]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06803]
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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; Small Business Pulse 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 May 19, 2020 during a 60-day comment period. This
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: Small Business Pulse Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607-1014.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular Submission, Request for a Revision of a
Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 810,000 (22,500 responses per week for up to
a maximum of 36 weeks of collection).
Average Hours per Response: 6 minutes.
Burden Hours: 81,000.
Needs and Uses: Phase 1 of the Small Business Pulse Survey was
launched on April 26, 2020 as an effort to produce and disseminate
high-frequency, geographic- and industry-detailed experimental data
about the economic conditions of small businesses as they experience
the coronavirus pandemic. It is a rapid response endeavor that
leverages the resources of the federal statistical system to address
emergent data needs. Given the rapidly changing dynamics of this
situation for American small businesses, the Small Business Pulse
Survey has been successful in meeting an acute need for information on
changes in revenues, business closings, employment and hours worked,
disruptions to supply chains, and expectations for future operations.
In addition, the Small Business Pulse Survey provided important
estimates of federal program uptake to key survey stakeholders.
Due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic, the Census Bureau
subsequently conducted Phases 2, 3 and
[[Page 17354]]
4 of the Small Business Pulse Survey. The Office of Management and
Budget authorized clearance of Phase 4 of the Small Business Pulse
Survey on February 16, 2021. The Census Bureau now seeks approval to
conduct Phase 5 of the Small Business Pulse Survey which will occur
over 9 weeks starting May 17, 2021.
The continuation of the Small Business Pulse Survey is responsive
to stakeholder requests for high frequency data that measure the effect
of changing business conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic on
small businesses. While the ongoing monthly and quarterly economic
indicator programs provide estimates of dollar volume outputs for
employer businesses of all size, the Small Business Pulse Survey
captures the effects of the pandemic on operations and finances of
small, single location employer businesses. As the pandemic continues,
the Census Bureau is best poised to collect this information from a
large and diverse sample of small businesses.
It is hard to predict when a shock will result in economic activity
changing at a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly frequency. Early in the
pandemic, federal, state, and local policies were moving quickly so it
made sense to have a weekly collection. The problem is that while we
are in the moment, we cannot accurately forecast the likelihood of
policy action. In addition, we are not able to forecast a change in the
underlying cause of policy actions: The effect of the Coronavirus
pandemic on the economy. We cannot predict changes in the severity of
the pandemic (e.g., will it worsen in flu season?) nor future
developments that will alleviate the pandemic (e.g., vaccines or
treatments). In a period of such high uncertainty, the impossibility of
forecasting these inflection points underscores the benefits of having
a weekly survey. For these reasons, the Census Bureau will proceed with
a weekly collection.
Phase 5 of the Small Business Pulse Survey proposes to capture
information on concepts such as business closings, changes in revenue,
changes in employment and hours, vaccine requirements, disruptions to
supply chain, operating capacity factors, and expectations for future
operations. These economic data will be used to understand how changes
due to the response to the Coronavirus pandemic have and continue to
affect American businesses and the U.S. economy. Content for Phase 5
will remain the same as the previous phase, with two minor additions of
response categories (``Restaurant Revitalization Fund'' and ``Shuttered
Venue Operators Grants'') will be added as options in questions 15 and
16.
All results from the Small Business Pulse Survey will continue to
be disseminated as U.S. Census Bureau Experimental Data Products
(https://portal.census.gov/pulse/data/). This and additional
information on the Small Business Pulse Survey are available to the
public on census.gov.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
Frequency: Small business will be selected once to participate in a
6-minute survey.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131 and 182.
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. 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 www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
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 0607-1014.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2021-06803 Filed 4-1-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
