Labor Surplus Area Classification Under Executive Orders 12073 and 10582, 55504-55505 [2014-22012]
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 179 / Tuesday, September 16, 2014 / Notices
web-based questionnaires. The burden
estimate is based on feedback from
respondents gathered during pilot
testing.
(6) An estimate of the total public
burden (in hours) associated with the
collection: There is an estimated 1,479
annual total burden hours associated
with this collection.
If additional information is required
contact: Jerri Murray, Department
Clearance Officer, United States
Department of Justice, Justice
Management Division, Policy and
Planning Staff, Two Constitution
Square, 145 N Street NE., 3E.405B,
Washington, DC 20530.
Dated: September 11, 2014.
Jerri Murray,
Department Clearance Officer for PRA, U.S.
Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2014–22011 Filed 9–15–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–18–P
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training
Administration
Labor Surplus Area Classification
Under Executive Orders 12073 and
10582
Employment and Training
Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The purpose of this notice is
to announce the annual list of labor
surplus areas for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015.
DATES: Effective Date: The annual list of
labor surplus areas is effective October
1, 2014, for all states, the District of
Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Samuel Wright, Office of Workforce
Investment, Employment and Training
Administration, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW., Room C–4514,
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone:
(202) 693–2870 (This is not a toll-free
number).
SUMMARY:
The
Department of Labor’s regulations
implementing Executive Orders 12073
and 10582 are set forth at 20 CFR part
654, Subpart A. These regulations
require the Employment and Training
Administration (ETA) to classify
jurisdictions as labor surplus areas
pursuant to the criteria specified in the
regulations, and to publish annually a
list of labor surplus areas. Pursuant to
those regulations, ETA is hereby
publishing the annual list of labor
surplus areas. In addition, the
regulations provide exceptional
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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18:22 Sep 15, 2014
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circumstance criteria for classifying
labor surplus areas when catastrophic
events, such as natural disasters, plant
closings, and contract cancellations are
expected to have a long-term impact on
labor market area conditions,
discounting temporary or seasonal
factors.
Eligible Labor Surplus Areas
A Labor Surplus Area (LSA) is a civil
jurisdiction that has a civilian average
annual unemployment rate during the
previous two calendar years of 20
percent or more above the average
annual civilian unemployment rate for
all states during the same 24-month
reference period. ETA uses only official
unemployment estimates provided by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics in making
these classifications. The average
unemployment rate for all states
includes data for the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico. LSA classification criteria
stipulate a civil jurisdiction must have
a ‘‘floor unemployment rate’’ of 6.0% or
higher to be classified a LSA. Any civil
jurisdiction that has a ‘‘ceiling
unemployment rate’’ of 10% or higher is
classified a LSA.
Civil jurisdictions are defined as
follows:
(a) A city of at least 25,000 population
on the basis of the most recently
available estimates from the Bureau of
the Census; or
(b) A town or township in the States
of Michigan, New Jersey, New York, or
Pennsylvania of 25,000 or more
population and which possess powers
and functions similar to those of cities;
or
(c) A county, except those counties
which contain any type of civil
jurisdictions defined in ‘‘a’’ or ‘‘b’’
above and a county in the States of
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode
Island; or
(d) A ‘‘balance of county’’ consisting
of a county less any component cities
and townships identified in ‘‘a’’ or ‘‘b’’
above; or
(e) A county equivalent which is a
town (with a population of at least
25,000) in the New England States or a
municipio in the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico.
Procedures for Classifying Labor
Surplus Areas
The Department of Labor (DOL) issues
the LSA list on a fiscal year basis. The
list becomes effective each October 1,
and remains in effect through the
following September 30. The reference
period used in preparing the current list
was January 2012 through December
2013. The national average
unemployment rate (including Puerto
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Sfmt 4703
Rico) during this period was rounded to
7.77 percent. Twenty percent higher
than the national unemployment rate is
9.32 percent. Therefore, areas included
on the FY 2015 LSA list had a rounded
unemployment rate for the reference
period of 9.32 percent or higher. To
ensure that all areas classified as labor
surplus meet the requirements, when a
city is part of a county and meets the
unemployment qualifier as a LSA, that
city is identified in the LSA list, the
balance of county, not the entire county,
will be identified as LSAs if the balance
of county also meets the LSA
unemployment criteria. The FY 2015
LSA list, statistical data on the current
and some previous year’s LSAs, and the
list of LSAs in Puerto Rico are available
at ETA’s LSA Web site https://
www.doleta.gov/programs/lsa.cfm. In
addition, the 2015 LSA list is available
on the Labor Market Information
Community of Practice at https://
winwin.workforce3one.org/view/Labor_
Surplus_Area_List_Issued/info.
Petition for Exceptional Circumstance
Consideration
The classification procedures also
provide criteria for the designation of
LSAs under exceptional circumstances
criteria. These procedures permit the
regular classification criteria to be
waived when an area experiences a
significant increase in unemployment
which is not temporary or seasonal and
which was not reflected in the data for
the 2-year reference period. Under the
program’s exceptional circumstance
procedures, LSA classifications can be
made for civil jurisdictions,
Metropolitan Statistical Areas or
Combined Statistical Areas, as defined
by the U.S. Office of Management and
Budget. In order for an area to be
classified as a LSA under the
exceptional circumstance criteria, the
state workforce agency must submit a
petition requesting such classification to
the Department of Labor’s ETA. The
current criteria for an exceptional
circumstance classification are,
(1) An area’s unemployment rate is at
least 9.32 percent for each of the three
most recent months;
(2) A projected unemployment rate of
at least 9.32 percent for each of the next
12 months; and
(3) Documentation that the
exceptional circumstance event has
occurred. The state workforce agency
may file petitions on behalf of civil
jurisdictions, Metropolitan Statistical
Areas, or Micropolitan Statistical Areas.
The addresses of state workforce
agencies are available on the ETA Web
site at: https://www.doleta.gov/programs/
lsa.cfm and https://
E:\FR\FM\16SEN1.SGM
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 179 / Tuesday, September 16, 2014 / Notices
winwin.workforce3one.org/view/Labor_
Surplus_Area_List_Issued/info. State
Workforce Agencies may submit
petitions in electronic format to
wright.samuel.e@dol.gov, or in hard
copy to the U.S. Department of Labor,
Employment and Training
Administration, Office of Workforce
Investment, 200 Constitution Avenue
NW., Room C–4514, Washington, DC
20210, Attention Samuel Wright. Data
collection for the petition is approved
under OMB 1205–0207, expiration date
March 31, 2015.
Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and
Training Administration.
[FR Doc. 2014–22012 Filed 9–15–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–FT–P
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
[Docket No. OSHA–2009–0025]
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.: Grant
of Expansion of Recognition
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
In this notice, OSHA
announces its final decision to expand
the scope of recognition for
Underwriters Laboratories Inc., as a
Nationally Recognized Testing
Laboratory (NRTL). Additionally, OSHA
announces its final decision to
incorporate two new test standards into
the NRTL Program’s list of appropriate
test standards.
DATES: The expansion of the scope of
recognition becomes effective on
September 16, 2014.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Information regarding this notice is
available from the following sources:
Press inquiries: Contact Mr. Frank
Meilinger, Director, OSHA Office of
Communications, U.S. Department of
Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW.,
Room N–3647, Washington, DC 20210;
telephone: (202) 693–1999; email:
Meilinger.francis2@dol.gov.
General and technical information:
Contact Mr. David Johnson, Director,
Office of Technical Programs and
Coordination Activities, Directorate of
Technical Support and Emergency
Management, Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, U.S. Department
of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW.,
Room N–3655, Washington, DC 20210;
telephone: (202) 693–2110; email:
johnson.david.w@dol.gov. OSHA’s Web
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SUMMARY:
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page includes information about the
NRTL Program (see https://
www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl/
index.html).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Notice of Final Decision
OSHA hereby gives notice of the
expansion of the scope of recognition of
Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), as
an NRTL. UL’s expansion covers the
addition of 21 test standards to its scope
of recognition.
OSHA recognition of an NRTL
signifies that the organization meets the
requirements specified by 29 CFR
1910.7. Recognition is an
acknowledgment that the organization
can perform independent safety testing
and certification of the specific products
covered within its scope of recognition,
and is not a delegation or grant of
government authority. As a result of
recognition, employers may use
products properly approved by the
NRTL to meet OSHA standards that
require testing and certification of the
products.
The Agency processes applications by
an NRTL for initial recognition, or for
expansion or renewal of this
recognition, following requirements in
Appendix A to 29 CFR 1910.7. This
appendix requires that the Agency
publish two notices in the Federal
Register in processing an application. In
the first notice, OSHA announces the
application and provides its preliminary
finding and, in the second notice, the
Agency provides its final decision on
the application. These notices set forth
the NRTL’s scope of recognition or
modifications of that scope. OSHA
maintains an informational Web page
for each NRTL that details its scope of
recognition. These pages are available
from the Agency’s Web site at https://
www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl/
index.html.
UL submitted an application, dated
March 26, 2013 (OSHA–2009–0025–
0008), to expand its recognition to
include multiple additional test
standards. OSHA staff performed a
comparability analysis and reviewed
other pertinent information. OSHA did
not perform any on-site reviews in
relation to this application.
OSHA published the preliminary
notice announcing UL’s expansion
application in the Federal Register on
April 14, 2014 (79 FR 20920). The
Agency requested comments by April
29, 2014, and received one comment
(OSHA–2009–0025–0010) in response to
this notice addressing UL’s scope of
recognition expansion request. OSHA
received no comments on its proposal to
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55505
add UL 66 and UL 8750 to the NRTL
Program’s list of appropriate test
standards.
To obtain or review copies of the
publicly available information in UL’s
application, including pertinent
documents (e.g., exhibits) and all
submitted comments, contact the Docket
Office, Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW.,
Room N–2625, Washington, DC 20210.
These materials also are available online
at https://www.regulations.gov under
Docket No. OSHA–2009–0025.
The sole commenter (OSHA–2009–
0025–0010) asserts that UL charges
different prices for the testing of
identical products based solely on an
applicant’s location and, consequently,
is not in compliance with ISO/IEC
Guide 65, Clause 4.4 addressing nondiscrimination.1 The comment,
however, does not provide any detail
that demonstrates that the referenced
products were ‘‘exactly the same,’’ nor
was there any information regarding
other factors that may have contributed
to the difference in price. While OSHA
believes that competition among the
NRTLs helps to control costs for testing
and certification services, there are
many factors that affect the price for
NRTL certification, including the
volume of products submitted for
certification by a particular applicant
(volume discounts), the location and
cost of factory surveillance, and the use
of certified components in the product,
to name a few. Any of these, or other,
factors could provide legitimate
justification for differences in price for
similar or ‘‘exactly the same’’ products
submitted for certification.
The comment further asserts that UL
is ‘‘using its monopoly status on
components certification’’ to charge
manufacturers higher fees. OSHA
regulations require certain types of
products used in the workplace to be
‘‘acceptable’’ to OSHA. For most
products, the NRTL must test and
certify the product to the appropriate
test standard. The NRTL Program’s
product-approval requirements apply
only to end products. The NRTL
Program requirements do not include
the certification of components. While
some NRTLs, including UL, developed
a component-certification program to
simplify the process of testing and
certifying an end product, component
certifications are not part of the NRTL
Program. With 15 organizations
recognized as NRTLs, manufacturers are
1 While the commenter references ISO/IEC Guide
65, Clause 4.4.1, OSHA believes that the correct
reference is ISO/IEC Guide 65, Clause 4.1.1.
E:\FR\FM\16SEN1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 179 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55504-55505]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-22012]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Labor Surplus Area Classification Under Executive Orders 12073
and 10582
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce the annual list of
labor surplus areas for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015.
DATES: Effective Date: The annual list of labor surplus areas is
effective October 1, 2014, for all states, the District of Columbia,
and Puerto Rico.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Samuel Wright, Office of Workforce
Investment, Employment and Training Administration, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW., Room C-4514, Washington, DC 20210. Telephone: (202) 693-
2870 (This is not a toll-free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Labor's regulations
implementing Executive Orders 12073 and 10582 are set forth at 20 CFR
part 654, Subpart A. These regulations require the Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) to classify jurisdictions as labor
surplus areas pursuant to the criteria specified in the regulations,
and to publish annually a list of labor surplus areas. Pursuant to
those regulations, ETA is hereby publishing the annual list of labor
surplus areas. In addition, the regulations provide exceptional
circumstance criteria for classifying labor surplus areas when
catastrophic events, such as natural disasters, plant closings, and
contract cancellations are expected to have a long-term impact on labor
market area conditions, discounting temporary or seasonal factors.
Eligible Labor Surplus Areas
A Labor Surplus Area (LSA) is a civil jurisdiction that has a
civilian average annual unemployment rate during the previous two
calendar years of 20 percent or more above the average annual civilian
unemployment rate for all states during the same 24-month reference
period. ETA uses only official unemployment estimates provided by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics in making these classifications. The average
unemployment rate for all states includes data for the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico. LSA classification criteria stipulate a civil jurisdiction
must have a ``floor unemployment rate'' of 6.0% or higher to be
classified a LSA. Any civil jurisdiction that has a ``ceiling
unemployment rate'' of 10% or higher is classified a LSA.
Civil jurisdictions are defined as follows:
(a) A city of at least 25,000 population on the basis of the most
recently available estimates from the Bureau of the Census; or
(b) A town or township in the States of Michigan, New Jersey, New
York, or Pennsylvania of 25,000 or more population and which possess
powers and functions similar to those of cities; or
(c) A county, except those counties which contain any type of civil
jurisdictions defined in ``a'' or ``b'' above and a county in the
States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; or
(d) A ``balance of county'' consisting of a county less any
component cities and townships identified in ``a'' or ``b'' above; or
(e) A county equivalent which is a town (with a population of at
least 25,000) in the New England States or a municipio in the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Procedures for Classifying Labor Surplus Areas
The Department of Labor (DOL) issues the LSA list on a fiscal year
basis. The list becomes effective each October 1, and remains in effect
through the following September 30. The reference period used in
preparing the current list was January 2012 through December 2013. The
national average unemployment rate (including Puerto Rico) during this
period was rounded to 7.77 percent. Twenty percent higher than the
national unemployment rate is 9.32 percent. Therefore, areas included
on the FY 2015 LSA list had a rounded unemployment rate for the
reference period of 9.32 percent or higher. To ensure that all areas
classified as labor surplus meet the requirements, when a city is part
of a county and meets the unemployment qualifier as a LSA, that city is
identified in the LSA list, the balance of county, not the entire
county, will be identified as LSAs if the balance of county also meets
the LSA unemployment criteria. The FY 2015 LSA list, statistical data
on the current and some previous year's LSAs, and the list of LSAs in
Puerto Rico are available at ETA's LSA Web site https://www.doleta.gov/programs/lsa.cfm. In addition, the 2015 LSA list is available on the
Labor Market Information Community of Practice at https://
winwin.workforce3one.org/view/
LaborSurplusAreaListIssued/info.
Petition for Exceptional Circumstance Consideration
The classification procedures also provide criteria for the
designation of LSAs under exceptional circumstances criteria. These
procedures permit the regular classification criteria to be waived when
an area experiences a significant increase in unemployment which is not
temporary or seasonal and which was not reflected in the data for the
2-year reference period. Under the program's exceptional circumstance
procedures, LSA classifications can be made for civil jurisdictions,
Metropolitan Statistical Areas or Combined Statistical Areas, as
defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In order for an
area to be classified as a LSA under the exceptional circumstance
criteria, the state workforce agency must submit a petition requesting
such classification to the Department of Labor's ETA. The current
criteria for an exceptional circumstance classification are,
(1) An area's unemployment rate is at least 9.32 percent for each
of the three most recent months;
(2) A projected unemployment rate of at least 9.32 percent for each
of the next 12 months; and
(3) Documentation that the exceptional circumstance event has
occurred. The state workforce agency may file petitions on behalf of
civil jurisdictions, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or Micropolitan
Statistical Areas.
The addresses of state workforce agencies are available on the ETA Web
site at: https://www.doleta.gov/programs/lsa.cfm and https://
[[Page 55505]]
winwin.workforce3one.org/view/
LaborSurplusAreaListIssued/info.
State Workforce Agencies may submit petitions in electronic format to
wright.samuel.e@dol.gov, or in hard copy to the U.S. Department of
Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce
Investment, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., Room C-4514, Washington, DC
20210, Attention Samuel Wright. Data collection for the petition is
approved under OMB 1205-0207, expiration date March 31, 2015.
Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration.
[FR Doc. 2014-22012 Filed 9-15-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FT-P
